Amid growing internal factionalism, the AIADMK faction led by former chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday urged Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar not to accept the resignations of three party MLAs.
The party cited alleged legal and procedural violations in the resignations and argued that the legislators had joined the ruling TVK even before their resignations were formally notified.
Senior AIADMK leader Agri S.S. Krishnamoorthy said the Speaker could not accept the resignations while a separate plea seeking the disqualification of 25 rebel MLAs under the anti-defection law was still pending before him.
The Edappadi camp had earlier sought action against 25 rebel MLAs after they backed the TVK government during the Assembly trust vote. On Monday, three MLAs from the rebel faction — Maragatham Kumaravel, P. Sathyabama and S. Jayakumar — resigned from the Assembly before joining the TVK.
“We had sought action against 25 AIADMK MLAs under the anti-defection law for defying Palaniswami’s directive during the confidence vote. The Speaker had said the matter was under consideration. Fearing disqualification, the three MLAs tendered their resignations. When the earlier plea is pending, the Speaker accepting their resignations contravenes the rules,” Krishnamoorthy said.
He further alleged that the three legislators were handed “laminated TVK membership cards” within minutes of submitting their resignations.
“People are asking whether this is the Secretariat or the TVK headquarters. If the government encourages such resignations, it will only encourage horse-trading. The government must step in to prevent this,” he said.
AIADMK Advocates’ Wing Secretary Inbadurai argued that legislators facing anti-defection proceedings cannot resign to avoid disqualification. “You can’t escape through the back door,” he said.