House may witness two AIADMKs, say Assembly officials

CHENNAI: After the AIADMK general council ousted former coordinator O Panneerselvam from the party a dicey situation had arose as to how the three expelled MLAs, including Panneerselvam, will be treated in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Who will be seated in the front row along with former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami?

However, Assembly officials said that if the decision of the general council is declared valid the Assembly will witness two AIADMKs and there are precedents in the state.

“In case of AIADMK succeeding in removing OPS from the party and also winning the legal battle, OPS and two other MLAs will become unattached members of the House and there will be two AIADMKs. There are quite a few incidents in the past in the Assembly where AIADMK was termed AIADMK-I and AIADMK-II. Classical example is the case of G Viswanathan, despite being removed from the party and declared unattached, who was declared by the Supreme Court that he was not an unattached MLA,” Assembly Secretary K Srinivasan told DT Next.

After being removed from the party, Panneerselvam and his supporters are now worried about their status in the Assembly. As of now, Panneerselvam continues as the Deputy Leader of Opposition and shares a lengthy chair with Palaniswami that is placed exactly opposite the chair of Chief Minister MK Stalin, in the House.

As Panneerselvam has been removed from the party he stands a chance of losing his post and may be pushed to a corner in the Assembly along with two MLAs R Vaithilingam and Manoj Pandian.

The Secretary said that the position and seating in the Assembly will only be decided by the Speaker M Appavu after both the sides approach the court and come with an order.

Meanwhile, Panneerselvam wrote a letter to the Speaker asking him not to accept the decisions taken in the AIADMK general council meeting and not to take any action against him as cases have been filed on the issue.