CHENNAI: The nine newly-elected MLAs belonging to AIADMK on Wednesday took oath of office as members of the Assembly in the presence of Speaker P Dhanapal at his chamber at the Secretariat.
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and senior ministers were present on the occasion.
Meanwhile, Nanguneri Assembly constituency fell vacant as H Vasanthakumar who was representing the constituency, resigned since he has been elected as MP from Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha constituency.
The following took oath as MLAs: A Govindasamy (Pappireddipatti), V Sampathkumar (Harur), S Thenmozhi (Nilakottai), P Kandasamy (Sulur), N Sadhan Prabhakar (Paramakudi), G Sampath (Sholingur), S Nagarajan (Manamadurai), P Chinnappan (Vilathikulam) and MSR Rajavarman (Sattur).
Meanwhile, Vasanthakumar submitted his resignation to the Speaker. He was representing Nanguneri Assembly constituency for the past eight years.
A few hours later, Assembly Secretary K Srinivasan announced that Vasanthakumar’s resignation has been accepted by the Speaker. Following this, this would be notified in the government gazette and intimated to the Election Commission of India.
In the normal course, by-election to any constituency which falls vacant should be held within six months. Since election to Vellore parliamentary constituency was rescinded last month, both could be held on the same day soon, official sources said.
Answering reporters’ queries after resigning his membership in the Assembly, Vasanthakumar said there were reports that the DMK wished to contest the by-election to Nanguneri constituency, but Congress leadership will take a final decision on this since he had been elected from this constituency two times.
Nanguneri segment
H Vasanthakumar said there were reports that the DMK wished to contest the bypoll to Nanguneri constituency, but Congress leadership will take a final decision as he had been elected from the segment two times.