AIADMK hit by fresh exodus
The AIADMK suffered another blow on Monday when three of its party legislators belonging to the rebel group led by senior leaders C Ve Shanmugam and SP Velumani resigned. They are set to join the ruling TVK, prompting “horse-trading” charges from the opposition DMK and AIADMK.
AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami lashed out at the “fraud jobs” of the TVK Government and said such things were new to Tamil Nadu politics. He called the resignation episode a “pre-planned conspiracy.”
The development comes weeks after the AIADMK lost the April 23 polls, the fourth major drubbing since 2019, its MLAs split into two groups, each supporting party general secretary Palaniswami and the Shanmugam-Velumani duo. The two camps took divergent positions on the TVK Government’s floor test, with the Palaniswami faction voting against it and the 25-member group on the other side backing the C Joseph Vijay-led government, which won the confidence vote.
With Speaker JCD Prabhakar accepting the resignation of the three MLAs, the strength of the AIADMK has dropped to 44 from 47 in the 234-member Assembly. The Speaker said the ECI will be communicated on the resignation. Soon after meeting the Speaker, the three legislators — Maragatham Kumaravel, P Sathyabama and S Jayakumar, met senior TVK leader and PWD Minister Aadhav Arjuna. Kumaravel said, “We are going to join TVK in Panayur (party hq),” later in the day. With the Speaker accepting the resignations, Tamil Nadu will witness byelections to four Assembly constituencies, including the Tiruchirappalli East vacated by Vijay.
