Amicable start, stormy end to budget session

Chennai: The budget session of 15th Assembly which started on a cordial note with mutual greetings between Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin ended in a stormy manner with furious DMK members creating a ruckus, tearing copies of a Bill and walking out the House on the final day.

Initially, there were promises of working unitedly for the welfare of the state, but frequent clashes erupted between the two parties whenever there were personal or party references. The session was keenly watched since the Assembly had the highest number of opposition members in its history. The DMK has 89 seats in the House.

The DMK members’ strategy in cornering the ruling party on key issues and the tactics of the ruling party became the cynosure of all eyes. The session was marked by numerous announcements by the Chief Minister under rule 110, acrimonious debates on personal and party issues, walk outs, besides the accompanying din and drama. The eviction of 79 DMK MLAs en masse and their suspension for a week was the flash point.

The DMK strongly protested against the move outside by holding public meetings and conducting a mock Assembly session. An unprecedented number of policemen were deployed in the Assembly premises to guard the secretariat on the day of the Chief Minister’s reply on Home department.

The ruling AIADMK charged the DMK with not respecting the Speaker and behaving in an indecent manner in the House and attempting to disrupt the proceedings.

The DMK for its part, alleged  there was no democracy in the House and opposition leaders were not allowed to speak or their remarks were being expunged.  

This was one session which saw many members singing verses from AIADMK founder MGR’s film songs and one of the songs triggered a debate between the ruling and opposition parties.

Despite the sound and fury, the DMK was careful not to oppose any move of the state government on key political issues like Cauvery and Siruvani disputes. It also supported a resolution to rename Madras HC as Tamil Nadu high court.  
Amendments to laws for electing local body chiefs were passed in this session, shifting the focus to the next political event in the state, the local body elections.