Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar’s decision a throwback to experience of 11 AIADMK MLAs in 2017-18

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Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar has decided not to pursue the matter of disqualification against 21 MLAs of the AIADMK. File | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar’s decision not to pursue the matter of disqualification against 21 legislators of the AIADMK appears to be a throwback to the treatment that 11 MLAs of the party experienced about eight years ago.

As in the present case, the legislators who faced the prospect of disqualification in 2017 were spared the proceedings in view of the then Speaker, P. Dhanapal, not going after them. However, there were two differences. Back then, no such announcement was made. Furthermore, the matter went to the Madras High Court that dismissed a plea for action against the legislators.

On February 18, 2017, a motion of confidence was moved by the then Chief Minister, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, in the Assembly. Eleven MLAs of his party, including former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and former Ministers S. Semmalai and K. Pandiarajan, voted against the motion. Though a whip was said to have been issued for the trust motion and petitions were given to Mr. Dhanapal about a month later, there was no follow-up on his part. In the meantime, the title and symbol of the AIADMK were frozen by the Election Commission. Five months later, the camps of Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam came together, burying their differences. Subsequently, the unified formation was recognised as the AIADMK and assigned the symbol of ‘Two Leaves’.

On August 22, 2017, legislators owing allegiance to the rebel leader of the AIADMK, T.T.V. Dhinakaran, submitted letters to Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, “withdrawing their support” to Mr. Palaniswami. On September 18, the Speaker disqualified 18 legislators on the ground that, through their action, they had “voluntarily” given up the membership of the party to which they belonged.

A week later, DMK whip R. Sakkarapani approached the court for a direction to the Sp