CHENNAI: The state Assembly witnessed a heated exchange on Tuesday over the resignation of six legislators and allegations that they joined another party soon after getting elected.
DMK MLA S Austin said six of the 234 seats in the Assembly were vacant. He said the chief minister had also resigned from one of the two constituencies from which he was elected. Austin said the six MLAs resigned within a month of taking the oath.
Assembly Speaker J C D Prabhakar said the resignations had been accepted as per the rules and that cases related to them were pending before the court. Minister Aadhav Arjuna said the government had already appointed a minister in-charge for every district.
These ministers would monitor the issues in all constituencies, he said. The issue took a political turn when minister K A Sengottaiyan claimed that former TVK candidate Arun Kumar had joined the party led by Edappadi K Palaniswami, asking whether it amounted to “horse trading”.
The AIADMK general secretary denied the allegations and said Arun Kumar’s nomination was rejected by the election officer and that he did not withdraw from contesting the polls. He also questioned how elected members of one party could suddenly join another party.