DMK stages walkout for third day over "pay-off" row

Chennai: The DMK staged a walkout for the third consecutive day on Friday  from the state assembly over the issue of alleged horse-trading of AIADMK MLAs.

Leader of Opposition M K Stalin led the walkout after he and deputy DMK leader in the House Duraimurugan argued with Speaker P Dhanapal over the issue in which remarks made by them were expunged by the chair after Finance Minister D Jayakumar made an intervention.

Textiles Minister O S Manian said the Opposition party trying to raise the issue was not appropriate.

When some DMK members who were walking out objected to it, Dhanapal said the minister was only reiterating his ruling of June 14.

Yesterday too, DMK made a vain bid to raise the same issue and walked out after Dhanapal disallowed their plea holding that the matter was sub-judice and based on media reports. DMK's allies Congress and IUML too had walked out on the issue.

On June 14, the alleged pay-off kicked up a storm in the Assembly which eventually led to en masse eviction of DMK members. They later staged a road blockade outside the state secretariat and were briefly detained by police.

The matter related to purported claims by O Panneerselvam camp MLA S S Saravanan in a TV 'sting' operation about alleged pay-offs to ruling party MLAs ahead of the February 18 trust vote that was won by incumbent chief minister K Palaniswami.