Lawmakers bring shame to nation: From throwing chairs to tearing shirts, here’s all what happened in TN assembly

The voting was halted for hours as the O Panneerselvam-led AIADMK, opposition DMK and Congress demanded secret voting but was denied by the Speaker already.

By: Aakash Biswas |
February 18, 2017 7:32 pm

The Tamil Nadu state assembly suddenly turned into a heated battlefield after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MLAs led the commotion against the Speaker P Dhanapal, who denied their demand of secret ballot for the floor test. Moments later, the MLAs turned into warriors and they collectively gathered near the hounorable speaker and then the scene became violent and more dramatic.

Meanwhile, DMK MLA Poongothai Aladi Aruna climbed on the bench to voice his opinion and others were busy in tearing papers and throwing chairs in the assembly. Moreover, another DMK MLA Ku Ka Selvam sat on Speaker’s chair in protest. The temperature in the house was rising gradually and suddenly it went beyond the limit when the MLAs tore speaker P Dhanapal’s clothes.

Soon the marshals marched inside the house and escorted the Speaker out of the chaos. Observing the situation, Speaker finally urged,”Now, where should I go and talk about the torture happened with me?”

He already had been through a lot by then and thus, he evicted the DMK legislators and adjourned the house till 3 pm. Later, in the afternoon, DML acting chief MK Stalin thought to play the blame game and initiated the ‘cloth tearing’ drama.

All the camera focused on the torn shirt of Stalin after he came out of the assembly and waved his hands in public. His co MLAs blamed the ruling AIADMK and stated that on the orders of “the ruling party”, these things happened to then and they have been roughed up.

During all this chaos, the live telecast was cut off.

The voting was halted for hours as the O Panneerselvam-led AIADMK, opposition DMK and Congress demanded secret voting but was denied by the Speaker already.

Several legislators from OPS faction also blamed Sasikala that threatened them for life for choosing Panneerselvam’s side. M Pandiarajan from OPS faction alleged that he was threatened with an acid attack if he did not vote in favour of the Chief Minister. The Speaker assured that he would have the allegations investigated.

After all this hustle and bustle, which was carried out for over 5 hours, E Palaniswami finally won the floor test. He won the trust vote with 122 AIADMK legislators voting in his favour. The only others in the house at the time were 11 lawmakers of the Panneerselvam faction.

On the other hand, the other faction’s leader, O Panneerselvam, cried foul and refused to back down. He accused the MLA’s of betraying late Jayalalithaa and asserted that Amma’s traitors have subverted the democracy. He also claimed that the trust vote is not legitimate and will meet Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, if needed.

But how could we forget MK Stalin? He didn’t stop just there but marched towards the Marina Beach and staged his protest with DMK MLAs. This protest didn’t last long as the police took charge and detained Stalin and company.