AIADMK diktat: Behave in Assembly

Ahead of the commencement of the Tamil Nadu Assembly session with Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s address on January 8, the ruling AIADMK convened its legislators meeting on Wednesday and strictly directed the members to be present in the House during the session and abide by the party whip.

In the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, 104 MLAs attended the meet while seven others, including Minister Sellur K Raju, Kadambur Raju and G Baskaran expressed their inability to attend the meeting, citing prior engagements and health issues, said senior AIADMK leader and minister D Jayakumar. Jayakumar asserted that there was no threat to the AIADMK government as all the MLAs are united to ensure Amma’s government completes its full term and also wins the future polls.

Sources in the AIADMK said that all the MLAs were advised by Palaniswami to be present during the session and to maintain decorum — even if there was any kind of instigation. Sources said that they also discussed the possibility of setting up a party newspaper and a news channel.

The Assembly is meeting for the first time after the disqualification of the 18 AIADMK MLAs who sided with sidelined leader TTV Dhinakaran in September last …read more