A political controversy unfolded in the Tamil Nadu Assembly when Forest Minister Ranjith Kumar omitted customary honorifics while referring to former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, prompting a protest from DMK members. Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay apologized for the minister's remark, attempting to quell the escalating tension. The assembly's discussions, focused on departmental grants, were further marked by exchanges regarding protocol violations, with accusations directed at the Leader of the Opposition by another minister. This led to a war of words that necessitated intervention from the leader of the house to bring the debate to a close.

A political controversy unfolded in the Tamil Nadu Assembly when Forest Minister Ranjith Kumar omitted customary honorifics while referring to former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, prompting a protest from DMK members. Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay apologized for the minister's remark, attempting to quell the escalating tension. The assembly's discussions, focused on departmental grants, were further marked by exchanges regarding protocol violations, with accusations directed at the Leader of the Opposition by another minister. This led to a war of words that necessitated intervention from the leader of the house to bring the debate to a close.

A political controversy unfolded in the Tamil Nadu Assembly when Forest Minister Ranjith Kumar omitted customary honorifics while referring to former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, prompting a protest from DMK members. Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay apologized for the minister's remark, attempting to quell the escalating tension. The assembly's discussions, focused on departmental grants, were further marked by exchanges regarding protocol violations, with accusations directed at the Leader of the Opposition by another minister. This led to a war of words that necessitated intervention from the leader of the house to bring the debate to a close.

Following the DMK’s protest after Forest Minister Ranjith Kumar referred to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi by name without the customary honorific in the assembly on Monday, Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay apologised on his behalf. 

The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly convened yesterday after a four-day break and began intense department-wise discussions around demands for grants for the 2026-27 financial year. 

The controversy occurred when Kumar spoke on the demands for grants for the health and revenue departments. Referring to the “Thirumangalam formula” and the alleged cash-for-votes practice, the minister claimed that voters from his constituency had received up to ₹1,500 per vote in earlier elections. 

He said the present government had come to power without giving voters money in exchange for their votes.

While mentioning the election strategies of the Opposition party in the past, Kumar referred to DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi simply as “Karunanidhi”, without the customary title “Kalaignar” (meaning scholar) or the designation “former chief minister”.

This resulted in strong protests from the DMK members, led by former minister KKSSR Ramachandran. 

An informal rule has been practised in the Tamil Nadu Assembly that former chief ministers, including Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa, are referred to with their honorifics. 

MLA O. Panneerselvam said the tradition of the house was to refer to leaders with formal titles as a mark of respect. He recalled an incident during the previous AIADMK regime when then chief minister M. G. Ramachandran had warned ruling party members for referring to Karunanidhi by name.

Amid escalating tension, CM Vijay intervened and apologised for the minister's remark. "It was wrong for the minister to mention your leader's name. I am sorry," the chief minister said.

However, the issue did not end there as Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister Ramesh accused Leader of the Opposition, Udhayanidhi Stalin, of violating the house rules.

He said former chief minister M.K. Stalin should teach Udhayanidhi a lesson in Assembly protocol, alleging that the DMK leader remained seated whenever Chief Minister Vijay entered the assembly.

Responding to this, DMK leader and former minister K. N. Nehru said that the same practice had been maintained in the previous assembly as well and that there was no need to lecture the Leader of the Opposition on dignity. 

As the war of words raged, leader of the house K. A. Sengottaiyan stepped in and urged the Speaker to put an end to the political debate.