AIADMK MLAs advised to maintain 'decorum' during Assembly

Top AIADMK leaders O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami today convened a meeting of the party legislators ahead of the next week's Assembly session, with 103 MLAs participating in the meeting.
Senior AIADMK sources said 103 MLAs attended the meeting, while seven others had 'excused' citing personal and official reasons.
At the meeting, convened ahead of the January 8 session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the legislators were advised to maintain 'decorum' at any given situation and abide by the party whip, the sources said.
"They were advised (by the top two leaders) to maintain decorum even if there was any kind of instigation," they said.

Panneerselvam is AIADMK coordinator while Palaniswami is the co-coordinator.
Next week's Assembly session would commence with the customary address by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, his first after assuming charge in November 2017.

The session will also see Dhinakaran making his debut in the Assembly after having won the December 21 Radhakrishnan Nagar bypoll by a thumping margin of 40,000 votes against E Madhusudhanan of the AIADMK.
This will also be the first session after Speaker P Dhanapal had disqualified 18 rival AIADMK MLAs supporting Dhinakaran, for revolting against Chief Minister Palaniswami in August last year.
These MLAs had met the then governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and said they had lost confidence in the chief minister, a day after the formal merger of the two factions led by Palaniswami and then rebel leader and Panneerselvam on August 21.

Meanwhile, the party today announced 12 party leaders, including former ministers C Ponnaiyan, P Valaramthi, S Gokula Indira and Vaigaiselvan as AIADMK spokespersons.
According to a release from Panneerselvam and Palaniswami, the others in the panel include former MP KC Palanisamy and ex-MLA JCD Prabhakar.