Breaking | EPS & Hundreds Of AIADMK Cadre Arrested For Staging Protest Against Speaker Sans Police Permission

AIADMK announced a hunger protest against the "murder of democracy" and the "biased" act of Speaker M Appavu in the Assembly on Wednesday.

EPS, his supporting MLAs and other cadre staging a protest at Valluvar Kottam

Source : Special arrangements

Chennai: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, his supporting MLAs and AIADMK cadre were arrested on Wednesday for staging a protest condemning "murder of democracy" in the state even after police denied permission for the protest. 

AIADMK interim general secretary EPS announced a hunger protest on Wednesday. However, the police denied permission to organise the protest.

Despite the order, AIADMK members gathered in black dress for the hunger protest at Valluvar Kottam. They also got involved in an argument with the police. The police who were deployed for protection immediately detained the protesters on Tuesday.

Later, addressing the reporters at Rajarathinam Stadium in Egmore, Edappadi Palaniswami alleged, “Speaker (Appavu) mentioned that there was no space to replace Deputy LoP in the Assembly rules but it’s a wrong argument. The Speaker did not obey the Supreme Court order.”

"Speaker is not acting in a biased way," charged EPS.

In a press release on Tuesday, AIADMK announced that it will stage a protest against the "murder of democracy" and the "biased" act of Speaker M Appavu in the Assembly. Earlier, AIADMK requested the Speaker to not allot the Deputy Leader of Opposition chair in the Assembly to AIADMK MLA O Panneerselvam. They also requested Appavu to allot the seat to RB Udhayakumar. However, OPS continued to sit on the chair allotted to Deputy Leader of the Opposition. 

As a result, EPS and his supporting MLAs boycotted the session on Monday.

On Tuesday, the opposition members, including Palaniswami, were trying to stage a protest near the Speaker's chair after Appavu disallowed him from trying to raise an issue during the Question hour.

Even though the Speaker did not allow the microphone, Palaniswami continued to urge the Speaker for a chance but the chair expunged all the remarks made by him.

The Speaker also ordered house marshalls to evict them. Some AIADMK members were defiant and the marshalls had to use force to evict them.

(With IANS inputs)