AIADMK general secretary EPS accuses Speaker of bias over seat allocation in Assembly

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 19 : All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Interim General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday said that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's "idea to break the AIADMK" will not work.
EPS also accused Assembly Speaker M Appavu of bias.
"We requested speaker M Appavu through a letter, three months ago to consider our new assembly deputy leader RB Udayakumar and allot him a seat accordingly in the Tamil Nadu Assembly but he has not considered it. Injustice has been done in place of the allocation of seats in the assembly. He is not behaving as a speaker and behaving in biased manner," Palaniswami said.

He further said that he met with CM Stalin and O Paneerselvam and discussed for more than half an hour on Tuesday.
He said, "Stalin's idea to break and destroy AIADMK will not work".
"The support of MLAs is important and the seats should be allocated only in accordance with their numbers. However, the speaker says there is no law in the assembly to allocate a seat of deputy leader, which is wrong as there is a law for it," he added.
The law and order is badly disturbed in the DMK government, he said further while addressing the media persons after several cadres of AIADMK cadres, including D Jayakumar, were detained by the Tamil Nadu police while protesting against the state government.

"This is a democracy, peaceful agitation should be allowed," Jayakumar said.
Despite we have stated that O Paneerselvam, Manoj Pandian and Vaithayalingam have been sacked from the party, Assembly speaker Apavoo is still supporting OPS.
Former chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) on Tuesday said that more than 60 AIADMK MLAs have given representations to the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker against OPS.
The fight between AIADMK factions led by former chief ministers EPS and OPS has reached the Tamil Nadu assembly, with both sides urging assembly speaker M Appavu to identify them as real AIADMK.
EPS in a press conference on Tuesday said "Over 60 MLAs from AIADMK don't want OPS to be the deputy leader of the opposition. We had given representations to the Speaker on the same. It is been two months since we requested the Speaker to remove OPS from the position. But however, no changes have been made and OPS is still the deputy leader of the opposition."
EPS was addressing the press after Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu ordered his and AIADMK MLAs' eviction amid a ruckus in the Assembly.
He further said that they were not given a chance to speak about this in the assembly. "OPS is someone who has been removed from the primary membership of AIADMK. The Speaker seems to be acting with suggestions from DMK," he added.
Earlier on October 17, when the Monsoon Session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly began, EPS remained absent.
As per sources, he "boycotted" the Assembly session because rival faction leader OPS was made to sit in the Assembly Deputy Opposition Leader Chair, the sources said.
Former Chief Minister OPS was seen participating in the proceedings of the House seated in the chair for AIADMK deputy floor leader.
Back on July 11, in the General Council meeting convened, EPS was elected as the interim General Secretary of the party. Before the meeting, supporters of both rival factions clashed outside the party headquarters.
Following the violent clash, the headquarters was seized by the Revenue Divisional Officer.
The August 17 judgement by a single bench of Justice G Jayachandran had nullified the July 11 meeting and ordered status quo, as prior to July 11. EPS camp then challenged the single bench judgement to a division bench of Madras High Court which ruled in favour of EPS.
Both factions of the AIADMK have urged the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu to identify them as the real AIADMK. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court.