After handing out a stunning defeat to BJP’s Pon Radhakrishnan in Kanyakumari, Congress’s H Vasanthakumar has now quit as Nanguneri MLA. The by-poll to Nanguneri will be held within six months.
Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is likely to walk away with the Nanguneri assembly seat in the ensuing by-poll.
The Nanguneri seat fell vacant after the newly-elected MP H Vasanthakumar resigned as its MLA. P Dhanpal, Tamil Nadu Speaker accepted his resignation.
Vasanthakumar called on assembly Speaker P Dhanapal and tendered his resignation and it was accepted effective Wednesday, Assembly secretary K Srinivasan said in an official release.
With Vasanthakumar's resignation, the strength of the 234-member House has come down to 233 and that of the Congress, an ally of the DMK, to seven. Congress’s strength has dwindled to 7 in the assembly. The DMK front has 109 MLAs in the House at present.
The Nanguneri by-poll will be held within six months and the date will be announced by the Election Commission.
Speaking to reporters, Vasanthakumar said DMK will be urged to allocate the Nanguneri constituency again to his party in the by-poll. The seat was allotted to Congress by DMK in 2016 assembly elections.
On Sunday, Vasanthakumar had called on DMK Chief M K Stalin at Anna Arivalayam the DMK headquarters. Vasanthakumar expressed that he had decided to quit from the post of legislator.
"I held discussions with DMK Chief M K Stalin here and with Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President K S Azhagiri over telephone. Based on their directive, I have decided to quit from the post of legislator,” he said.
Though AIADMK and DMK had allotted seats for their respective allies in the April 18 Lok Sabha elections, they preferred to contest all the 22 assembly seats for which by-polls were held on May 19.
Reports suggest that DMK sources said that the party was keen on contesting from the constituency.
In the Lok Sabha polls held on April 18, Vasanthakumar defeated BJP leader Pon Radhakrishnan by a huge margin of 2.59 lakh votes. While the DMK won 13 seats, AIADMK emerged victorious in nine constituencies.
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