Chennai: Leader of the Opposition, Edappadi K Palaniswami, and the 61 MLAs owing allegiance to him, did not take part in the proceedings of the State Assembly that met on Monday for a brief monsoon session, which is scheduled to pass a resolution against Hindi imposition by the Union Government.
While the boycott was over the seating arrangement for the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker M Appavu said he would take a decision on changing the seat of former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who now sits next to Palaniswami in the Assembly, later.
He said that both the Palaniswami group, claiming to have expelled Panneerselvam from the party and appointed R B Udhayakumar as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, and the rival group, stating that Panneerselvam continued to be the convener of the AIADMK, had given letters to him and that he would take a decision on the matter after going into the merits of the claims.
However, Panneerselvam, along with the three MLAs in his camp, attended the Assembly, which was adjourned after obituary references. He said that he would protect the rules and regulations of the AIADMK, which was founded by M G Ramachandran and nurtured for 16 years by J Jayalalithaa.
Earlier, as Panneerselvam entered the Secretariat building to attend the session, there was flutter at the gate when the security personnel refused permission for three safari-clad men who accompanied him. Suspected to be professional bouncers, the three men lingered outside the gates for some time before leaving. When asked about his reported bid to bring in ‘bouncers’ to the House, Panneerselvam denied it.
The House paid homage to leaders who passed away like Queen Elizabeth II of England, Malaysian former Minister Dato Samivelu and Samajwadi Party founder Mualayam Singh Yadav and CPM leader from Kerala Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
After remembering a few former members of the House and former Speaker Sedapatti Muthiah, who passed away in September, the House was adjourned in his memory.
The Business Advisory Committee, which met to finalise the agenda for the session, decided to make it a brief one spanning just two more days - Tuesday and Wednesday. Besides the resolution against Hindi imposition, the session will see the presentation of the supplementary budget and the placing of two commission reports before the House.
The reports of Justice (Retired) A Arumuguhasamy commission that went into the circumstances leading to the passing away of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and the Justice (Retired) Aruna Jagadeesan commission that probed the police firing on peaceful protestors at Thoothukudi, who was demanding the closure of the private Sterlite Copper plant would be placed in the Assembly.
