Cong, AIADMK members trade blows, AIADMK MLAs suspended

Chennai, May 26 (UNI) Pandemonium prevailed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly when AIADMK and Congress members came to blows, culminating in en masse eviction and suspension of the Opposition AIADMK members for the rest of the session, even as Chief Minister M Karunanidhi appealed to the Chair to reconsider the decision.

Even as Congress and AIADMK members were trading blows, AIADMK MLA R Sekar Babu advanced menacingly towards Mr Karunanidhi, following which Health Minister K K S S R Ramachandran and Mr Karuppasamy Pandian formed a security ring around the Chief Minister.

This prompted Speaker R Avudiyappan to direct the marshalls to evict the AIADMK members from the Assembly and forced the House to adopt an unanimous resolution on the suspension of the AIADMK members for the rest of the session.

The trouble started when Mr Peter Alphonse (Congress), speaking on the debate for the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address, accused the previous AIADMK Goverment of shelving the prestigious desalination project for which the Centre had allocated Rs 1,000 crore.

Raising a point of order, the AIADMK members insisted that Former Minister K P Anbalagan should be allowed to give an explanation.

When Mr Anbalagan sought to deviate from the subject, Speaker Avudiyappan asked Mr Alphonse to resume his speech.

Upset over repeated interference from the Opposition, a visbly annoyed Mr Alphonse asked Former Minister D Jayakumar (AIADMK) to mind his business, triggering a fresh bout of verbal exchanges.

The situation went out of control as AIADMK members Kalairajan, C Ve Shanmugham and Pandurangan engaged in heated exchanges with Mr Gnanasekaran (Cong).

In the melee, the Congress member was attacked with a mike, leading to fisticuffs.

When the Congress members came to the defence of Mr Gnanasekaran, the AIADMK members too joined the fisticuffs. Nothing could be heard in the din as the AIADMK and Congress members attacked each other following which the Speaker directed the marshalls to evict the AIADMK members for their unruly behaviour.

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