A day after the grand birthday celebrations of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, eight former DMDK MlAs joined AIADMK on Thursday. These ex-MlAs were elected to the Assembly in 2011 on DMDK tickets which had an alliance with the AIADMK.
But since 2012, these MlAs were functioning as a separate bloc, having called on Jayalalithaa and extended their support to her. The last session of the current legislature got over last Saturday and the rebel MlAs quit the house the next day.
In addition to these eight Ex-DMDK MlAs, two MlAs belonging to the Puthiya Tamizhagam and PMK respectively who resigned from the House on Sunday too were admitted to the AIADMK.
With the resignation of the eight DMDK MlAs from the House, Vijayakanth lost the position of the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly as the number of party MlAs came down to 20. Since the DMK has only 20 MlAs in the outgoing house, Stalin could not aspire to be the lOP.