Chennai: DMK MLAs on Wednesday staged a walkout from the Assembly after Speaker P. Dhanapal refused to read out the contents of the letter addressed to him from Governor CH Vidhyasagar Rao on a video CD containing details about the alleged sale of legislators ahead of February 18 trust vote.
Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin demanded that Dhanapal read out contents of the letter that Rao sent to him through Chief Secretary. Rao had sent the letter to Dhanapal attaching a representation presented to him by Stalin with a CD that alleges that MLAs were allegedly paid bribes to vote in favour of Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
“There is no need for me to read out the contents of the letter. It does not deal with the proceedings of the House and hence I don’t find any reason for the contents to be read here. The DMK is raising the issue with an agenda,” Dhanapal ruled.
However, Stalin and his deputy Duraimurugan stood their ground demanding that Dhanapal reveal the contents of the letter. When Dhanapal refused, the DMK MLAs staged a walkout. Stalin had on Saturday last met Rao and demanded that the government be dismissed for indulging in horse trading.
