Tamil Nadu: EPS Loyalists Don Black To Lodge Protest Against Seating Issue In Assembly

AIADMK's O Panneerselvam and his faction leaders reached the Assembly in white

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leaders including party interim general secretary former Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami reached Tamil Nadu Assembly donning black shirts marking a protest against law and order issues in the state and the seating arrangements issue in the Assembly.

Meanwhile, AIADMK's O Panneerselvam and his faction leaders reached the Assembly in white.

AIADMK leaders have been claiming that the law and order situation is deteriorating under the DMK rule in the state. In August, Tamil Nadu witnessed 15 murders in 36 hours and since then the AIADMK's EPS faction has been claiming that the law and order situation in the state is under threat.

In November, The AIADMK leaders met Governor RN Ravi and urged him to take note of several irregularities under DMK's rule. Palaniswami then pointed out that despite central intelligence agencies' warning, the DMK government had not taken enough measures to prevent the Coimbatore blast that happened on October 23. Palaniswami in his meeting with the Governor also mentioned that the government failed to control the drug menace in the state. 

Seating Arrangements Row In Assembly

A row erupted over seating arrangements in the Assembly as Palaniswami has earlier urged Speaker M Appavu to change his seating arrangements.

Again on Tuesday, the AIADMK interim general secretary requested the Speaker to change his seating arrangements as he claimed that he doesn't want to sit beside expelled leader O Panneerselvam.

A day after the Assembly started in October, amid AIADMK’s single leadership row, the party’s interim-general secretary EPS met Assembly Speaker Appavu along with his supporting MLAs on Tuesday. The leaders during the meeting reportedly requested Appavu not to allot the deputy Opposition leader seat to O Panneerselvam.

EPS and the MLAs also urged the Speaker to accept their letter that bats to allot the deputy speaker seat to RB Udhayakumar instead of OPS.

However, OPS was allotted a seat next to EPS' chair despite the meeting on Tuesday. Following this, EPS and other MLAs voiced out and started shouting slogans against the decision.