All DMK MLAs evicted from Tamil Nadu Assembly

Chennai, April 1: Legislators belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (

) were evicted from the

Assembly on Monday as they did not heed the chair's request to maintain decorum.

The enmasse eviction was ordered by Speaker P Dhanapal after the DMK members trooped into the Well of the House, slamming the remarks made by Transport Minister Senthil Balaji.

During his reply to a Calling Attention motion on alleged irregularities in the procurement of ticket vending machines that are to be used by staff of state transport corporations, Balaji said that former deputy chief minister MK Stalin does not have any right to raise the issue.

Incidentally, the Calling Attention motion was moved by MLAs belonging to the DMK and Left parties. Stalin's party colleagues protested loudly and some of them even surrounded the chair. The speaker asked these MLAs to go back to their seats. As his appeals for calm fell on deaf ears, Dhanapal asked the marshalls to evict all the DMK legislators.

Then, Leader of the House O Panneerselvam moved a resolution for suspending MLAs J Anbazhagan and Sivasankaran for two days as they had not stuck to the ethos of the Assembly while protesting the transport minister's remarks.

Though the main opposition party Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) objected to the suspension of the two DMK members, the resolution was passed by the House.

This is not the first time that MLAs of the DMK have been evicted in the ongoing Budget Session of the TN Assembly. Last week, marshalls were similarly used to throw out the party's legislators enmasse on Mar 27 when they rushed to the Well of the House after Chief Minister Jayalalithaa castigated DMK supremo M Karunanidhi over the Lankan Tamils issue.

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)