Chennai: Tamil Nadu assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal on Wednesday suspended all the opposition DMK members for a week following bedlam in the house.
Leader of the House and Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam moved a resolution for suspending the DMK legislators and it was adopted by the house. The DMK has 89 members, including party chief and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who did not attend the session on Wednesday. The DMK’s ally Congress with eight members will continue to participate in the assembly proceedings.
It all started with ruling AIADMK member Gunasekaran making a comment about the ‘Namakku Namey’ tour of DMK leader M.K. Stalin prior to the state assembly elections, which the DMK members opposed. Leader of Opposition Stalin, who entered the house, demanded the remarks be expunged.
However, the Speaker said the AIADMK member did not mention any names and so declined to expunge the remarks. The DMK members continued to interrupt the proceedings, after which the Speaker ordered the assembly marshals to evict them. The marshals bodily lifted Stalin and left him in the assembly lobby.
Later, speaking to reporters, Stalin said the DMK members were suspended so that they did not participate in the debate on the demands for grants for the Police Department on August 22. He said the next course of action will be taken after discussion with party chief M. Karunanidhi.
