Ten former MLAs belonging to the DMDK, PMK and PT (Puthiya Tamizhagam) joined AIADMK on Thursday.
The eight former MLAs of the DMDK who joined are: R Sundararajan (Madurai Central constituency), K Tamil Azhagan (Tittakudi), Michael Rayappan (Radhapuram), Arun Pandian (Peravurani), K Pandiyarajan (Virudhunagar), T Sureshkumar (Chengam), R Santhi (Senthamangalam-ST), and M Arun Subramanian (Tiruttani). M Kalai Arasu (PMK) and A Ramasamy (Puthiya Thamizhagam) are the other two.
The MLAs had resigned their memberships in the state assembly on February 21. They joined the ruling AIADMK in the presence of CM and party leader Jayalalithaa.
The speaker of the Tamil Nadu assembly had earlier accepted the resignations and announced that DMDK leader Vijayakanth will no longer be the Leader of Opposition in the assembly as the party's numbers have dwindled.
The signs of dissidence in DMDK started more than three years ago.
In 2013 itself, almost seven MLAs from the party had met CM J Jayalalithaa, distancing themselves from the party.
With the resignations, the DMDK is reduced to a party with just 20 MLAs. The DMK meanwhile has 23 MLAs. Though these rebel MLAs had distanced themselves from their respective parties since 2013 itself, they were waiting for the assembly session to get over to submit their resignations, lest anti-defection laws would be applicable to them.