TN assembly Speaker disqualifies 18 AIADMK legislators

Chennai, Sep 18 : Ruling AIADMK's 18 legislators loyal to sidelined Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dinakaran have been disqualified under the anti-defection law by the Tamil Nadu Speaker, a statement said on Monday.

In the statement issued by the state assembly, Speaker P. Dhanapal ordered "disqualification of 18 lawmakers under the anti-defection law from 18.9.2017 onwards".

A total of 19 AIADMK lawmakers had submitted a letter to Governor C.V. Rao withdrawing their support to Chief Minister K. Palaniswami. They asked the Governor to initiate the process to install a new Chief Minister.

Following which AIADMK's Chief Whip S. Rajendran wrote to Dhanapal to disqualify the 19 MLAs who have rebelled against Palaniswami.

On his part Dhanapal issued notices to the 19 lawmakers as to why they should not be disqualified under the anti-defection law.

Subsequently one of the lawmakers S.T.K. Jakkaiyan switched over to the Palaniswami-side.