CHENNAI: Former AIADMK minister M R Vijayabhaskar on Monday resigned from his MLA post. He handed over his resignation letter to Speaker J C D Prabhakar. He was the sixth AIADMK legislator to resign, bringing down the AIADMK’s numbers from 47 to 41 amidst the ongoing exodus of AIADMK functionaries, including former ministers, MPs, and MLAs.The Speaker issued a statement confirming that the Karur MLA submitted a handwritten resignation under Assembly Rule 21, which has been duly accepted as per Rule 22. The Karur MLA is likely to join the ruling Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam in the coming days. This further intensifies charges against the ruling party of indulging in ‘horse-trading’, allegations that have refused to die down. The principal opposition party and AMMK leader T T V Dhinakaran also continued to attack the ruling party for luring MLAs from other parties to shore up its government.Vijayabhaskar’s resignation comes two weeks after his former cabinet colleague C Vijayabhaskar’s resignation. The latter resigned on June 16. They were among the 25 legislators who voted in favour of chief minister C Joseph Vijay’s government in the motion of confidence on May 13.While the Viralimalai MLA and former health minister Vijayabhaskar’s induction into the TVK has been postponed from June 29 to later this week, information is percolating that the Karur MLA will also join the ruling party soon.It may be recalled that four former MLAs- Maragatham Kumaravel, P Sathyabama, S Jayakumar, and Esakki Subaya – joined the TVK on May 25 and 26.
