JOIN USThe first day of business in the historical complex began with the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 14th Assembly, constituted after the recent elections that swept the J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK back to power.
The new chapter in the legislature started to unfold as leader of the House O Pannerselvam (AIADMK) and the Opposition leader Vijayakant (actor and DMDK leader) ushered the new unanimously elected Speaker D Jayakumar to the historic ‘Chair’, which resembles the Speaker’s Chair in UK’s House of Commons.
Business in the old seat of power began 14 months after the Assembly started to function in the new ‘Secretariat cum Assembly Complex’ built by the DMK and was moved back since the building wasn’t completed.
Thought to have become a museum piece after the exit of the Assembly, the artistic original ‘Speaker’s Chair’, presented by the then Governor of Madras Province Lord Willington and his wife Lady Willington on March 6, 1922, again came alive with Jayakumar’s ascension.
It was a proud and historic moment for the former AIADMK minister and four-time MLA hailing from a backward fishermen’s community, when the pro-Tem Speaker C K Tamilarasan declared Jayakumar’s unanimous election as Speaker of the 14th Assembly. Seated on the Chair, an emotional Jayakumar was profusely thankful to ‘Amma’ for having elevated him to this high Constitutional office and hailed her as a “heroic fighter and a compassionate Mother.”
Jayakumar then announced the unanimous election of P Dhanapal, five-times AIADMK legislator and a Dalit, as the Assembly’s new Deputy Speaker.