6th wicket: Vijayabaskar quits House; AIADMK may lose more MLAs

CHENNAI: In a fresh challenge for AIADMK, especially its leader Edappadi K Palaniswami, MLA and the party’s leader from Karur MR Vijayabaskar resigned from the Assembly on Monday, becoming the sixth legislator to quit the post and party in less than two months.

The former minister, who personally submitted his resignation letter to Assembly Speaker JCD Prabhakar, is expected to join the ruling TVK later this week, sources said.

With Vijayabaskar's resignation, the number of vacancies in the 234-member Assembly has risen to seven, bringing down the effective strength of the House to 227 until the vacancies are filled through by-elections.

Earlier, five AIADMK MLAs — K Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), S Jayakumar (Perundurai), P Sathyabama (Dharapuram), Esakki Subaya (Ambasamudram) and C Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai) —had resigned from the House. While the others have since joined the TVK, C Vijayabaskar will join in the coming days.

If sources are to be believed, more are likely to follow suit. Though senior leaders SP Velumani and Natham R Viswanathan, who were among those who rebelled against party chief Palaniswami, returned to the AIADMK, they are unhappy that the powerful district secretary posts that they once occupied were not restored.

Palaniswami’s move to give them organisational posts has not mollified them one bit, said sources, adding that some of them may follow their fellow rebels to quit the party and join the TVK if the party leadership fails to restore their power – and prestige – soon enough.

Meanwhile, in a related development on Monday, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Secretary R Santhi submitted to the division bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan that if an MLA resigns voluntarily, the Speaker was duty bound to accept it, irrespective of the motive behind the resignation.