Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker Drops Action Against 21 AIADMK Rebel MLAs After Party Leader's Condonation
Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar announced on June 9, 2026, that he has dropped proceedings against 21 of 25 AIADMK MLAs who voted against party directions during a confidence vote on May 13, following condonation letters from party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami. The 21 MLAs had voted contrary to the party whip's direction in the confidence vote for Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's government. The decision leaves proceedings ongoing only against four rebel legislators who resigned and joined the TVK party.
Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar announced that he has dropped further action against 21 AIADMK MLAs who had voted against party whip directions during the May 13 confidence vote for Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's government. The Speaker received four separate letters from AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami condoning the conduct of these 21 MLAs, leading to the decision to withdraw proceedings initiated under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. Initially, Palaniswami had sought disqualification of all 25 rebel MLAs, but subsequently submitted letters condoning 21 of them. The Speaker stated that proceedings remain active against four other rebel legislators—Maragatham Kumaravel, S. Jayakumar, P. Sathyabama, and Esaki Subaya—who resigned and joined the TVK party, with a decision on their status to be made later.
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