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'We have done nothing wrong and I don’t understand why they are sending a notice'
The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, which has a wafer-thin majority in the house and needs to win at least 8 of the just-concluded 18 bye-elections to keep its’ majority intact, has decided to go after three more legislators from its ranks.
Not satisfied with dismissing 18 MLAs for siding with rebel leader TTV Dhinakaran, which caused the bye-elections in the first place, the AIADMK has now set its sights on three MLAs for the same reason.
Bye-elections for 18 seats have concluded and on May 19 there are bye-elections scheduled for four more seats. Perhaps not sure about winning these seats, the ruling party has gone on a defensive mode and is trying to reduce the number of members in the assembly as it will bring down the numbers required for a majority.
On April 30 the Tamil Nadu assembly speaker P Dhanapal issued notices to three AIADMK legislators on charges of siding with rebel leader and AMMK founder TTV Dhinakaran.
The Speaker issued notices to A Prabhu (Kallakurichi), VT Kalaiselvan (Vriddhachalam) and E Rathinasabapathy (Aranthangi) based on a petition filed by chief government whip S Rajendran seeking action against them.
The three MLAs have been given a week's time to respond.
Kallakurichi MLA A Prabhu told Rediff.com, “We have until May 7 to respond and we will reply before that.
"We have done nothing wrong and I don’t understand why they are sending a notice. TTV Dinakaran was part of the AIADMK and now he has parted ways. He has started his own party, the AMMK, and recently also registered it.
'We won the elections on the AIADMK symbol and we are members of the party. We are not members of the AMMK that they are accusing us of joining hands with them. It’s a false allegation. We remain members of the AIADMK and that is what we will say in our reply.”
VT Kalaiselvan declined to state his future plans while E Ratnasabapathy refused to answer the phone.