Nine new AIADMK members today took over as legislators - a day after 13 members of the opposition DMK took oath as MLAs. The 22 MLAs won in the recently held by-polls.
Speaker P Dhanapal administered the oath of office to the new members in his chamber in the presence of Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami and AIADMK coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam.
The nine new AIADMK legislators are P Kandhasamy (from Sulur constituency); G Sampath (Sholinghur); A Govindasamy (Pappireddipatti); V Sampathkumar (Harur); S Thenmozhi (Nilakkottai); S Nagarajan (Manamadurai); MSR Rajavarman (Sattur); P Chinnappan (Vilathikulam) and N Sathan Prabhakar (Paramakudi).
With the addition of nine new MLAs, the ruling party now has a majority strength of 123 legislators in the 234-member Assembly while the DMK has 101 members and its allies - Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League - with eight and one legislators respectively. TTV Dhinakaran is the lone independent MLA.
Nanguneri by-poll
Meanwhile, H Vasanthakumar, the Congress MLA representing the Nanguneri constituency today resigned as a legislator following his election as Member of Parliament from Kanyakumari constituency. Vasanthakumar’s resignation will warrant a by-poll in Nanguneri constituency, and it is not yet clear if Congress will field its candidate or allow its ally DMK contest the seat.