CHENNAI: AIADMK staged a walkout from the Assembly twice on Wednesday, once during the discussion on the Anna University sexual assault case and later alleging Speaker M Appavu for “acting in a biased manner”.
AIADMK MLA and deputy leader of opposition RB Udhayakumar, addressing media outside the Assembly, said it was the Congress MLAs who disrupted the proceedings during governor’s address. Arguing that the AIADMK MLAs only showed placards against the state government and not against the governor, he alleged that the speaker, however, acted only against the AIADMK members in a partisan manner.
In the Assembly, the speaker on Wednesday said the actions of AIADMK MLAs on Monday, during the governor’s address, was contrary to the rules of the Assembly, and since it should not set a wrong precedent, he would refer the matter to the Privileges Committee for investigation.
However, following a request from Chief Minister MK Stalin, he dropped the action. When Udhayakumar tried to raise the issue again in the Assembly, the speaker disallowed him and expunged former’s remarks from Assembly records, following which the AIADMK MLAs walked out.
Both PMK and AIADMK blamed the state government for denying permission for opposition parties to hold protests in public places on the Anna University case and filing cases against them while freely allowing the ruling DMK to stage protests against the governor. The CM clarified in the Assembly that cases were filed in some places against DMK members as well for such protests since they were done without proper permission.