Dealing another blow to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), former Minister and Ambasamudram MLA Esakki Subaya on Tuesday (May 26, 2026) met Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar at the Secretariat and resigned from his MLA post.
Mr. Subaya, a three-time legislator and an AIADMK strongman in southern Tamil Nadu, was among the 25 rebel AIADMK MLAs, headed by former Minister S.P. Velumani, who voted in favour of the Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay-led government during the vote of confidence in the House on May 13.
Mr. Subaya followed suit after three other AIADMK MLAs — Maragatham Kumaravel (Maduranthagam), S. Jayakumar (Perundurai), and P. Sathyabama (Dharapuram) — of Mr. Velumani’s faction resigned as legislators on Monday (May 25) and later joined the TVK. Following the resignation of the three MLAs, their respective Assembly segments were declared vacant. Official notifications in this regard have been issued in the Tamil Nadu government gazette.
EPS supporters meet Speaker
Meanwhile, AIADMK legislators belonging to the faction led by party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday met the Speaker at the Secretariat and submitted a petition requesting him to withdraw the acceptance of the resignations tendered by three of the party’s MLAs.
AIADMK MLAs Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy, Thalavai Sundaram, O.S. Manian and Rajya Sabha MP I.S. Inbadurai met the Speaker in his chamber and submitted a three-page petition seeking withdrawal of the acceptance of the resignations of Ms. Kumaravel, Ms. Sathyabama, and Mr. Jayakumar.
Later, while speaking to reporters, Mr. Krishnamurthy said the Speaker should not accept their resignations as disqualification proceedings under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution were pending against them.
Mr. Krishnamurthy said a letter had been submitted to the Speaker seeking anti-defection proceedings against the 25 rebel AIADMK MLAs who voted in favour of the TVK government during the trust vote. Fearing disqualification, the three MLAs resigned their Assembly membership, he said.
He also said five AIADMK MLAs – S.M. Sukumar (Arcot), P. Hari Bhaskar (Anthiyur), K. Mohan (Panruti), Dileepan Jaishankar (Sankarankoil), and N.S.N. Nataraj (Kangayam) – who voted in favour of the TVK government during the trust vote had “realised their mistake” and submitted a letter to the general secretary extending their support to him.
To a question on whether the AIADMK would go to court on this issue, Mr. Inbadurai said the party would take a call after the Speaker announces his decision on the petition submitted to him.
Curated by James Chen
