CHENNAI: A day after three AIADMK MLAs who backed the TVK government during the Confidence Vote resigned from the 17th Tamil Nadu Assembly, another legislator, Ambasamudram MLA Esakki Subaya, stepped down from his Assembly membership on Tuesday.
Considered a key AIADMK leader in the southern districts, Subaya was part of the rival faction led by former minister C Ve Shanmugam, which comprises 25 MLAs.
"I have taken this decision keeping in mind the welfare of the people of the Ambasamudram Assembly constituency. I will issue a detailed explanation soon," said Subaya.
The Speaker asked Subaya to submit a handwritten resignation letter to ensure that he was resigning from the membership of his own free will.
Ahead of Subaya's meeting with the Speaker, a group of AIADMK leaders led by Agri SS Krishnamurthy met and submitted a representation from party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, objecting to the acceptance of the resignation letters of the three MLAs when the plea for their disqualification for defying the party whip to vote against the TVK government during the Confidence Vote on May 13, was still pending.
The Palaniswami group MLAs argued that the Speaker should withdraw the notification declaring the Assembly seats represented by the three MLAs vacant, contending that the acceptance of their resignations was hasty and in violation of the rules.
Meanwhile, former Speaker M Appavu, in a post on X, said, " The petition submitted by the AIADMK general secretary to the Speaker, seeking the disqualification of 25 MLAs elected on the party’s symbol under the anti-defection law, is still pending. While that petition remains under consideration, there was no need for the Speaker to act with such haste on the resignation letters submitted by three of those MLAs."