'Speaker will take right decisions in Assembly seating arrangements'

CHENNAI: Senior AIADMK leader D Jayakumar on Thursday exuded confidence that Speaker M Appavu will act in an unbiased manner in seating arrangements in the assembly for the forthcoming sessions and allot seats for ousted AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam and his supporters in a separate row. If the Speaker failed to act as per rules, it would bring him a bad reputation.

“OPS and his supporters have been removed from the party. We have given a representation to the Speaker not to allocate seats in the AIADMK legislature row. I am hoping the Speaker will take appropriate decisions as per the provision of the rules. If he acts as per the wishes of the ruling party and OPS, it will bring him a bad reputation,” Jayakumar told reporters after coming out of the executive engineering of the PWD department after submitting a petition to clean the premises of the Tamil Nadu state council for higher education and statue of former CM Jayalalithaa at the campus ahead of the party’s foundation day celebration (October 17).

“The executive engineer gave me an appointment at 12 noon. The official was not present in his chamber when I reached his office. I submitted the petition to his subordinate, who was unaware about his whereabouts. I was a former speaker, minister and five time MLA, but I was unable to meet an official. If this is happening to me, think about the situation of the common man,” he said.

The people petitioning the Chief Minister cell were taken for a ride, he said and pointed out that the petitioner to the Chief Minister cell was shocked after the government authorities informed that his demand to lay Navalur-Thlambur Road had been completed at Rs 3.75 crore. But the road remains in bad condition.

“Now the question is what happened to the fund allocated for the road?, ” he said and pointed out this is a sample of the kind of work done by this government.

He further charged that the storm water drain works were incomplete in several areas in Chennai and the quality was not upto the mark. However, the Chennai Mayor claimed that 95% of the work was completed. “It will pose a serious challenge to this government and it will become unpopular among the public in the days to come,” he said.

On the possibility of merger or alliance with AIADMK factions led by TTV Dhinakaran, V K Sasikala and OPS, Jayakumar responded in negative, he said the people have rejected TTV Dhinakaran and V K Sasikala, while O Panneerselvam was rejected by the party cadres. “They are not influential factors to aid AIADMK in defeating the DMK, which became unpopular among the public,” he added.

Rejecting state BJP leader K Annamalai’s claim that the saffron party is the real opposition party to the DMK in the state, Jayakumar said, “He (Annamalai) can speak anything to project his party and work for its growth. People are the judges and they know which party is the real opposition party.”

The DMK government became an unpopular among the public, he said.