(Image source from: News9live.com)

In another blow to the AIADMK, which has been dealing with problems inside after a recent election loss, three of its MLAs left the Tamil Nadu Assembly and joined the TVK led by Chief Minister Vijay on Monday. The MLAs—Maragatham Kumaravel, Jayakumar, and Sathyabama—handed in their resignations to Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker JCD Prabhakar, who approved them. This event happened two weeks after 30 AIADMK MLAs, led by prominent party member CV Shanmugam, showed their support for Vijay’s TVK government. The three legislators who resigned from the party led by Edappadi Palaniswami were part of this group of rebels. Kumaravel won from the Maduranthakam area, Sathyabama from Dharapuram, and Jayakumar from Perundurai on AIADMK tickets. Dharapuram and Perundurai are areas where AIADMK has traditionally held power in the Kongu region of western Tamil Nadu, while Maduranthakam is near Chennai. Right after handing in their resignations, the MLAs met with TVK Minister Aadhav Arjuna in his office.

These three MLAs were part of the 25 legislators who recently changed their support to Vijay and voted for the TVK government during the floor test on May 13, going against the party’s orders. Five of the AIADMK rebels switched back to support party leader Edappadi Palaniswami. This has increased the number of MLAs supporting Palaniswami in the Assembly to 27. Those who returned to Palaniswami include SM Sukumar from Arcot. With three MLAs resigning and five returning to Palaniswami's side, the size of the rebel group has dropped from 25 to 17. The AIADMK won a total of 47 seats in the recent Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, while Vijay’s TVK became the largest party with 108 seats but did not reach a majority. The TVK later formed the government with help from Congress, IUML, VCK, and the Left parties, while the AIADMK rebels also supported the ruling party. However, in a surprising turn within the rebel group, senior leader SP Velumani denied any intention to split the party on Friday and stated that Edappadi Palaniswami is still their leader. He mentioned that the party should aim to bring back the “Amma rule,” which is connected to former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

Velumani also said that neither he nor Shanmugam had shown any interest in getting positions in the new government. TVK did not provide any Cabinet position to the rebel AIADMK legislators during Vijay’s latest ministry expansion.