Drama ensued inside the Tamil Nadu assembly on Wednesday after DMK legislators were thrown out of the House en masse for demanding a discussion on the row over a television channel sting alleging money being paid to ruling party legislators to vote for Chief Minister K. Palaniswami.
DMK legislators, led by party's acting chief MK Stalin, raised the issue of ruling AIADMK MLAs being allegedly paid huge sums of money and gold ahead of a February 18 trust vote in the Assembly. Speaker P. Dhanapal refused permission to discuss the matter saying it was sub-judice.
Dhanapal pointed out that the issue was sub-judice as DMK's petition challenging the trust vote, won by the Palaniswami Ministry, was pending in the Madras High Court.
He also referred to the DMK making an urgent mention yesterday about the sting operation by a TV channel which had aired a video footage, purportedly showing an AIADMK MLA making some claims of pay-offs to ruling party MLAs ahead of the trust vote.
However, the DMK members remained on their feet and raised slogans in support of their demand for a discussion on the issue.
The Speaker stuck to his stand that the issue cannot be raised and cited precedents from 2011 when similar matters were not allowed on the ground of sub-judice. He also said that the MLA S S Saravanan of Madurai South and a member of the OPS camp have clarified on the matter.
As DMK members continued to create a ruckus, the speaker ordered eviction of the DMK MLAs, including Leader of the Opposition Stalin. Stalin and other DMK MLAs then staged a demonstration on the Kamarajar Road outside the state secretariat housing the Assembly premises, affecting movement of traffic. Stalin and other MLAS were detained by police.
Stalin, protesting outside the assembly termed the eviction of his party MLAs as 'murder of democracy.
"Tamil Nadu speaker forcibly evicted us from the assembly, this is a murder of democracy," Stalin said before being detained by the police.
