Tamil Nadu: Exodus of AIADMK MLAs continues; 6th MLA quits

Barely two months after witnessing one of its worst results in the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, the AIADMK—the third-largest party in the state assembly—is bleeding elected representatives. On Monday (June 29), senior AIADMK leader and former Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar met Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar at his office in Chennai and tendered his resignation. The Speaker accepted the resignation, making it the sixth exit of an AIADMK legislator in recent weeks. While the AIADMK secured 47 seats in the 234-seat assembly, the ongoing exodus of its MLAs has brought its strength down to 41.

The successive exits come during a period of intense churning within the 54-year-old party and growing differences between influential state leaders and party chief Edappadi K. Palaniswami. Primarily, the internal rift centres on whether the party should support Chief Minister Vijay’s government. This remains a crucial issue, given that Vijay’s party emerged as the single largest entity but lacked the required numbers to form a majority on its own. The AIADMK MLAs who violated the party diktat by voting in favour of Vijay's government during the assembly floor test were subsequently ousted from their district-level party positions. Even after a recent patch-up with the leadership, they have not been reinstated to their party posts.

Four AIADMK MLAs who resigned from office and quit the party last month have already joined the ruling TVK. Last week, another former AIADMK minister, C. Vijayabaskar, also resigned from his assembly seat. Speculation is growing that both C. Vijayabaskar and M.R. Vijayabhaskar will officially join the TVK at an event in Chennai this week. While the AIADMK and the DMK have accused Vijay’s TVK of horse-trading, the ruling party maintains that the MLAs are quitting voluntarily due to deep dissatisfaction with the AIADMK leadership.

Bypolls for 7 Assembly seats to be conducted in Tamil Nadu

With six AIADMK MLAs having resigned and Chief Minister Vijay vacating one of the two seats he won, bypolls are now due across seven assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu. These bypolls are widely perceived as a major opportunity for the ruling TVK to increase its independent strength in the 234-seat house, where 118 legislators are required for a majority. Currently, the TVK has 107 MLAs of its own, backed by allies Congress (5 MLAs), IUML (2 MLAs), and VCK (2 MLAs), along with external support from the CPI and CPI(M), which hold two MLAs each.