The AIADMK members were evicted en masse from Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday after they created ruckus immediately after the Question Hour, leading to Speaker M Appavu order their eviction and barring them from attending the day's proceedings.
Shortly after the Question Hour, Leader of the Opposition, Edappadi K Palaniswami sought to raise a specific issue before the House but Appavu dissuaded saying the LoP could take up the matter only after obtaining prior permission from the Chair.
The main opposition legislators, however, took exception to the Speaker's ruling and insisted that Palaniswami be allowed to speak. However, Appavu remained firm and asked Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin to commence his reply to the House.
As Udhayanidhi stood up, the AIADMK members created ruckus, stalling the reply.
With the opposition members unrelenting, the Speaker ordered the Assembly marshals to evict them for disrupting the House proceedings. He later barred them from taking part in the rest of the session today.
Speaking after their expulsion, Chief Minister MK Stalin said AIADMK, and also the party with whom it wanted to forge electoral ties, should play the role of constructive opposition parties and desist from spreading rumours on the breakdown of law and order in the state.
"During the Zero Hour Palaniswami attempted to raise a question on a law and order issue without prior notice to the Speaker... it was the AIADMK members who tried to hinder the Assembly proceedings," Stalin stated.
Tamil Nadu is a peaceful state and rapidly progressing too. Those inimical to the state and could not bear the positive environment attempted to exaggerate a few isolated crime cases to cause panic among the people, he said.
The number of crimes decreased under the present DMK regime and prompt action was being taken to bring the culprits to book. In the process no one, even if they belonged to the DMK, was spared, Stalin added.
Stalin's son Udhayanidhi, who was at his sarcastic best, began his reply by saying "greetings to LoP, and Deputy Leader (R B Udayakumar) who returned from urgent work in Delhi, and are seldom present in the House for my reply." "Two years ago, when he (Palaniswami) tried to get into my car by mistake, I told him that I have no problem in him taking my car provided it was not driven to Kamalalayam (BJP state headquarters)," Udhayanidhi said.
At this, former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam replied that their car would never go in the wrong direction, he recalled.
"But today the route changed in Delhi where three cars were swapped. It was said he went to his party office. Congratulations on that," Udhayanidhi said sending peels of laughter among the Treasury Benches.
He was jocularly referring to Palaniswami's meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital on March 25.
Speaking to reporters outside the House, the former Chief Minister alleged that the Speaker planned their eviction. "The DMK is not concerned about the people. The Assembly is for discussing people's issues. But, their sole aim is to evict us," he alleged.
Palaniswami claimed the Speaker and the Chief Minister should realise that the Legislative Assembly was for the people and not the other way around.
He wanted to draw the House's attention to the murder of a police constable in Madurai's Usilampatti allegedly by ganja dealers but the Speaker refused discussion on the subject, the former Chief Minister said.
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