8 DMDK MLAs resign from Assembly: Vijayakant loses Oppn leader status

Chennai, February 21

Actor-politician Vijaykant lost his position as leader of Opposition after eight dissident legislators of his party DMDK resigned from the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Speaker P Dhanapal, who accepted the resignations, said Vijayakant had lost his Opposition Leader status after his party’s strength was decimated.

“DMDK founder Vijayakant no longer meets the qualification to be recognised as the Opposition Leader under relevant Assembly rules,” the Speaker's Secretariat said in a release.

No other party has the required 24 legislators members in the 234-member house, leaving the Assembly without a Leader of Opposition.

Actor-politician Vijayakan made his debut in the assembly in 2006, when he was the only DMDK MLA. The party won 29 seats in the 2011 elections.

A senior leader of the party, former Alandur legislator Panrutty S Ramachandran, had resigned in 2014 to join AIADMK, bringing down DMDK's strength to 28.

Although he had joined hands with the ruling AIADMK for the 2011 elections, Vijayakant later walked out of the alliance over an argument with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on the floor of the assembly.

The state is due to hold elections later this year. The DMK-Congress combine, BJP and the four-party bloc, People's Welfare Front (PWF), is wooing the DMDK for an alliance. — PTI