Chennai, May 26:
The Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretariat on Tuesday formally informed the Election Commission about vacancies in three constituencies following the resignation of three MLAs from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
The constituencies declared vacant are Madurantakam, Dharapuram and Perundurai.
The development comes a day after the three legislators—Maragatham Kumaravel, Sathyabama and S. Jayakumar—submitted their resignations to Assembly Speaker J. C. D. Prabhakar. The Speaker accepted their resignations later on Monday after verifying that all procedural requirements had been fulfilled.
Explaining the process, Prabhakar said that MLAs are required to submit resignation letters in their own handwriting and present them in person. Since all three legislators complied with these rules, their resignations were accepted without delay.
The resignations have intensified the political storm in the state, with sharp reactions from the opposition. M. K. Stalin, chief of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, alleged that the developments reflected “horse trading” happening at “horse speed.”
In a strongly worded statement, Stalin accused the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam of orchestrating the political shifts to secure its position during the confidence motion. He described the sequence of events as a calculated effort to negotiate support, engineer resignations, and induct defecting legislators.
Questioning the mandate of the ruling party, he asked whether the people had voted for such “disgraceful spectacles,” adding that those who once claimed to represent political purity now stood exposed.
Stalin also criticised the Indian National Congress for backing the TVK, terming its stance “hypocrisy” and accusing it of contradicting its stated opposition to the BJP while remaining part of the ruling arrangement in Tamil Nadu.
The resignations and subsequent notification to the Election Commission have set the stage for by-elections in the three constituencies, even as the state’s political climate continues to remain volatile.