The first day of the Tamil Nadu Assembly session witnessed high drama on Wednesday with DMK Working President and Leader of Opposition MK Stalin evicted from the House by the Speaker. Following this, Stalin along with other DMK MLAs staged a dharna outside the House.
DMK had demanded that a discussion be held on the sting operation conducted by Moon TV and Times Now. The videos showed Madurai South MLA SS Saravanan, who had defected from the Sasikala to the O Panneerselvam faction, admitting that both camps offered legislators money in exchange for support during the February 18 trust vote.
The demand began at 11.07 am and continued for 40 minutes. Speaker P Dhanpal then said that the matter cannot be discussed because it was sub-judice. He further raised the example of a discussion on the Nira Radia tapes in Assembly, back in 2011. The Speaker said that the DMK refused to talk about the issue, claiming that it was already a matter of discussion in the court.
Unsatisfied by this explanation, DMK MLAs continued to disrupt the proceedings in assembly. Following this the speaker individually named members of the DMK in the Assembly and ordered their eviction. DMK MLAs led by Stalin then stormed out of the house and staged a sit-in protest.
"It has become clear that there was horse trading ahead of the trust vote held in Assembly," said MK Stalin, outside assembly. "The matter has always been sub-judice. We filed a case in the matter months back and now only requested that it be brought up for hearing sooner in light of a sting by a TV channel. But the government does not want us to raise question and we were thus evicted," he added.
Along with the DMK, legislators of the Congress and IUML also joined the demonstration. The MLAs were all detained by the police for staging a protest.
DMK MLAs including @mkstalin who staged demonstration in front of Secretariat courted arrest. pic.twitter.com/rcaqwfeWDt
— Pinky Rajpurohit (@Madrassan) June 14, 2017