TN Speaker resigns

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker D Jayakumar resigned in an unexpected move on Saturday indicating a possible crack in the ruling party.

The four-time AIADMK legislator representing the Royapuram Assembly constituency and loyalist of party supremo J Jayalalitha was elevated to the Speaker post after the party came back to power in May last year.

However, of late, supporters of Jayakumar had been projecting him in posters as an exceptional leader which apparently annoyed other senior leaders, notably Chennai mayor and veteran AIADMK leader Saidai S Doraiswamy, sources said.Significantly, the AIADMK leadership had suspended nearly a dozen of Jayakumar’s supporters recently in the backdrop of the high command’s directive that party posters should display only the pictures of the late Dravidian Movement leader Periyar, AIADMK’s party-founder MGR, his mentor C N Annadurai and that of present leader Jayalalitha.

A brief official notification here by Assembly Secretary A M P Jamaludeen said that the Speaker had resigned.

While the Speaker’s post is vacant, the duties of the office would be consequently performed by Deputy Speaker P Dhanapal, the notification said, indicating the resignation has been accepted.