Chennai: Deputy Speaker and chairperson of Assembly Privileges Committee 'Pollachi' V. Jayaraman on Thursday said a decision on initiating action on 21 DMK MLAs including Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin would be taken after their reply to the notices sent to them for displaying gutka sachets in the Assembly.
Speaking to the media, he said explanation for the notice sent to them should be given on or before September 5and a decision on taking action on them would be decided after that time.
He also said two members in the committee, Stalin and DMK MLA K.S. Ravichandran could not take part in the committee's meeting to decide on the charges since both of them had been charged with showing gutka sachets in the House. Any member who is facing charges could not take part in the hearing as per Assembly rule, Jayaraman said.
He also said senior members like DMK principal secretary K. Duraimurugan did not touch the sachets since they were aware that bringing banned products into the Assembly would invite action against them.
With Jayaraman, making it clear that two DMK members could not attend the privileges committee meeting, the opposition strength in the panel would be reduced to just five against the seven MLAs supporting Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami camp. However, there are three members belonging to AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary group and they could tilt the scales in favour of DMK, if they attend the meeting.
Besides, Speaker P. Dhanapal, who is being invited to take up the post of Chief Minister's post by party general secretary V.K. Sasikala's family has the powers to decide on taking action on DMK legislators on the privileges issue. Besides, Dhanapal would decide on the disqualification notices given to 19 MLAs backing Dhinakaran.
