TN Congress MLA elected to LS resigns from assembly

Congress leader H Vasanthakumar, elected from Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu in the recent polls, Wednesday resigned his membership of the assembly.

The legislator, representing Nanguneri segment, 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.

Byelection to the constituency would be announced in due course by the Election Commission.

Speaking to reporters, Vasanthakumar said DMK will be urged to allocate the Nanguneri constituency again to his party in the bypoll. The seat was allotted to Congress by DMK in 2016 assembly elections.

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 bypolls were held on May 19.

While the DMK won 13 seats, AIADMK emerged victorious in nine constituencies.