AIADMK continues to bleed MLAs, sixth legislator set to hitch Vijay’s celebration | India Information
4 min learnChennaiUp to date: Jun 29, 2026 03:42 PM IST
The regular erosion of the AIADMK legislative ranks continued on Monday with Karur MLA and former transport minister M R Vijayabhaskar resigning from the Tamil Nadu Legislative Meeting, turning into the sixth legislator from the celebration to stop inside weeks of the 2026 Meeting election.
Vijayabhaskar personally submitted his handwritten resignation to Meeting Speaker J C D Prabhakar on the Secretariat. Accepting it, the Speaker mentioned the resignation complied with Guidelines 21 and 22 of the Guidelines of Process of the Legislative Meeting.
Sources within the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) mentioned that Vijayabhaskar is predicted to hitch the celebration later this week, persevering with a political migration that has steadily weakened the principal opposition. Vijayabhaskar had narrowly retained the Karur constituency within the 2026 Meeting election, defeating TVK candidate V P Mathiyalagan by 1,821 votes after polling 71,542 votes. A former minister underneath late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, he had misplaced the constituency to the DMK’s V Senthil Balaji in 2021 earlier than reclaiming it this yr.
His resignation comes barely two weeks after former well being minister C Vijayabaskar, MLA from Viralimalai, resigned from the Meeting. Each, thought of among the many hottest AIADMK MLAs with a major maintain on their constituency, have been among the many 25 opposition legislators who voted in favour of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s authorities in the course of the confidence movement on Could 13, defying the AIADMK whip.
Deepening disaster
The newest resignation reduces the AIADMK’s Meeting power from the 47 seats it received within the election to 41, marking one of many sharpest post-election erosions the celebration has witnessed lately.
Earlier, Okay Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), S Jayakumar (Perundurai), P Sathyabama (Dharapuram), Esakki Subbiah (Ambasamudram) and C Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai) had resigned their Meeting seats. 4 of them have already joined the ruling TVK, whereas C Vijayabaskar’s induction is predicted shortly. The AIADMK and opposition celebration leaders alleged horse-trading and large funds behind these defections, moreover an alleged technique of TVK focusing on MLAs from financially poor or socially backward communities.
The resignations have concurrently elevated the variety of vacant Meeting constituencies. With Vijayabhaskar’s resignation accepted, six constituencies represented by former AIADMK legislators now stand vacant. Along with the emptiness created after CM Vijay resigned his Tiruchirappalli East seat following his election as Chief Minister, the whole variety of vacancies within the 234-member Meeting has risen to seven, bringing down its efficient power to 227 till by-elections are held.
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The rising vacancies have inevitably shifted consideration in the direction of the subsequent spherical of by-elections. Having already secured workplace by means of post-election realignments, the ruling TVK is predicted to view the upcoming contests as a chance to transform legislative help right into a direct electoral mandate. The Election Fee is but to announce the schedule for the bypolls.
State’s political churn
The developments additionally underline the contrasting political trajectories unfolding throughout Tamil Nadu’s opposition.
Whereas the AIADMK continues to lose sitting legislators one after one other, veteran Tamil chief Vaiko’s Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), which formally walked out of the DMK-led alliance over the weekend, has encountered a unique downside. Its two MLAs, elected on the DMK’s Rising Solar image, have refused to resign from the Meeting. Sirkazhi MLA Senthil Selvan has resigned from the MDMK and introduced that he would stay with the DMK, whereas Kadayanallur MLA T M Rajendran has additionally indicated his unwillingness to vacate his seat.
For the AIADMK, nonetheless, the arithmetic has turn into more and more tough. The celebration entered the Meeting hoping to rebuild after its electoral defeat. As an alternative, inside weeks, it has watched six legislators resign, a number of senior leaders transfer in the direction of the ruling celebration, and its numerical power shrink steadily contained in the Home. Whether or not the exodus stops at six or expands additional earlier than the bypolls has now turn into one of many central political questions confronting Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition.
