The AIADMK suffered a blow on Monday as three of its MLAs, belonging to the rebel group led by senior leaders C Ve Shanmugam and S P Velumani, resigned and are set to join the ruling TVK, prompting allegations of horse-trading from the DMK and the AIADMK.
AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami lashed out at the TVK government, calling the episode a “pre-planned conspiracy”. The development comes weeks after the AIADMK’s defeat in the April 23 Assembly elections, its fourth major setback since 2019 and the subsequent split of its legislators into two camps — one backing Palaniswami and the other supporting the Shanmugam-Velumani duo.
The two factions had taken divergent positions during the TVK government’s floor test. While the Palaniswami faction voted against the government, the 25-member rebel group backed the C Joseph Vijay-led dispensation, which won the confidence vote.
Speaker JCD Prabhakar accepted the resignations of Maragatham Kumaravel, P Sathyabama and S Jayakumar, bringing the AIADMK’s strength in the 234-member Assembly down from 47 to 44. The Speaker said the Election Commission would be informed about the vacancies.
Soon after meeting the Speaker, the three legislators met senior TVK leader and PWD Minister Aadhav Arjuna. Kumaravel said they would join the TVK at Panayur, the party headquarters, later in the day.
Kumaravel was elected from Maduranthakam, Sathyabama from Dharapuram and Jayakumar from Perundurai on AIADMK tickets. Dharapuram and Perundurai fall in the AIADMK’s traditional stronghold of the Kongu region in western Tamil Nadu, while Maduranthakam is near Chennai.
The three were among the 25 AIADMK legislators who had voted in favour of the Vijay-led TVK government during the May 13 floor test, defying the party diktat.
Meanwhile, five MLAs from the Shanmugam-Velumani camp returned to the Palaniswami fold. With this, the number of MLAs backing Palaniswami in the Assembly has risen to 27. The strength of the rebel camp has fallen from 25 to 17 after the three resignations and the return of the five MLAs.
The legislators who returned to the Palaniswami camp included S M Sukumar from Arcot, P Haribaskar from Anthiyur, Dilipan Jaishankar from Sankarankoil, N S N Natarajan from Kangayam and K Mohan from Panrutti. They later met the Speaker and submitted a letter stating that they would function under Palaniswami’s leadership.
“We gave a letter to our general secretary expressing regret over some mistakes during the floor test in the Assembly. We said all five of us will function under his leadership and returned to the AIADMK,” Sukumar said.
