DMK motion against Speaker defeated

Leader of Opposition MK Stalin sought the motion immediately after the question hour. While the ruling AIADMK opposed the confidence vote, DMK, Congress and IUML supported it. 

With 35 MLAs seeking a no confidence motion against him, Dhanapal vacated his official seat. Deputy speaker Pollachi K Jayaraman occupied the seat and conducted the session. 

Earlier, the Deputy Speaker went for voice vote twice and declared that the motion had been defeated but the DMK insisted on a division which Jayaraman permitted. Subsequently, 97 MLAs - members of the DMK and allies Congress and IUML - voted in favour of the motion moved by Opposition leader MK Stalin, while 122 ruling party MLAs voted against it. 

MLAs belonging to the O Panneerselvam group of AIADMK including the former CM himself were not present during the voting. After the division was taken and the votes counted, Jayaraman declared that 97 MLAs had voted in favour of the motion and 122 against it. “The motion is defeated,” he said, amid thumping of desks by AIADMK members. 

Later, Finance Minister D Jayakumar presented the Final Supplementary Estimates of Rs 4,796.58 crore for the year 2016-2017. Of this, Rs 4,121.49 crore was in the Revenue Account, he said. 

Liquor prices will shoot up as the Assembly introduced a new bill to levy additional tax, with retrospective effect from April 1, 2016 on alcoholic liquors.