CHENNAI: The strength of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has fallen to 230 if the Speaker M Appavu accepts the resignation of AIADMK MLA KA Sengottaiyan, creating the fourth vacancy in the current House. As a result, only 230 members will sit in the forthcoming session, which will begin with the Governor’s address.
The House, which has a full strength of 234, first recorded a vacancy in June when AIADMK MLA TK Amulkandasamy of Valparai died on June 21, reducing the party’s strength from 66 to 65. A second vacancy arose on October 23 following the death of
DMK MLA K Ponnusamy, who represented Senthamangalam. His demise brought down the total strength of the Assembly to 232 and reduced the DMK’s tally from 133 to 132.
In November, internal strife in the AIADMK triggered two more exits. Alangulam MLA P Manoj Pandian resigned his post on November 4. Soon after, senior legislator KA Sengottaiyan, representing Gobichettipalayam, also tendered his resignation. AIADMK’s tally reduced further to 63.
If the speaker M Appavu accepts Sengottaiyan’s resignation the number of vacant seats will rise to four and the overall strength of the 16th Assembly will be 230.