The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Monday suffered a massive setback after three MLAs from the rebel camp tendered their resignations from the Tamil Nadu Assembly after meeting Speaker JCD Prabhakar. The rebel legislators also met Minister Aadhav Arjuna and are expected to join Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) soon.
One of the three rebel MLAs is K Maragatham Kumaravel, who got elected to the Tamil Nadu Assembly from the Madurantakam seat after defeating TVK candidate Ezhil Katharine Ezhilmalai by a margin of around 7,194 votes.
The other MLA is S Jayakumar who won the Perundurai seat after defeating Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidate ND Venkatachalam by a margin of 9,693 votes. At this seat, TVK candidate VP Arunachalam was a close third with 59,483 votes.
AIADMK's P Sathyabama has also resigned from the assembly. Sathyabama had won the Dharapuram in the recently held Tamil Nadu elections, defeating DMK candidate T Indirani by a margin of 16,727 votes. At this seat, TVK candidate Gowri Chitra was a distant third with 46,438 votes.
It is expected that their resignations, which were accepted immediately by the Speaker, would cause a byelections on the above-mentioned seats.
The rebellion in AIADMK
All these three leaders are among the 25 MLAs who had voted in TVK's support during the floor test in the assembly.
If the rebel leaders go on to join the TVK, then it would be a huge boost for Vijay's party, which had fallen short of a simple majority in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly. In addition, their resignation would only weaken the AIADMK, which is already struggling to handle a rebellion inside the party.
The rebellion in the AIADMK is being led by SP Velumani and C Ve Shanmugam, who have questioned the leadership of Edappadi K Palaniswami, commonly known as EPS among his supporters. Velumani and Shanmugam want Palaniswami to quit from the position of AIADMK's general secretary to pave a way for a new leadership in the party after its drubbing in the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections where it won just 47 seats.
Their rebellion sparked speculations of another split in the party, but Velumani has said that he has no intention of breaking the party and the AIADMK needs to work towards restoring the "Amma rule" in the state.
"We have no intention of breaking the party or causing a split. We supported TVK while respecting the people's mandate," he said last week. "We should accept the poll defeat and strive to re-establish Amma's rule."
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