With the death of the DMK’s Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni MLA J Anbazhagan on Wednesday, the current Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has seen the largest number of 29 vacancies arise in over four years. Presently, along with Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni, the Tiruvottiyur and Gudiyatham (Reserved) constituencies are vacant following the deaths of K.P.P. Samy and S. Kathavarayan – both belonging to DMK – in February this year. Consequently, the strength of the Assembly has come down to 231 including the Speaker.
To date, nine legislators including former Chief Ministers Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi have died, while 18 vacancies were caused by the disqualification of rebel AIADMK legislators under the anti-defection law. Another ruling party MLA and former Minister Balakrishna Reddy stood disqualified following his conviction in a criminal case. Besides, one Congress MLA H. Vasanthakumar had resigned from Nanguneri following his election to the Lok Sabha from the Kanyakumari seat.
Five DMK MLAs have died, and four of the AIADMK. Incidentally, Tirupparankundram and Gudiyatham have seen vacancies twice in the current term. While the AIADMK MLA from Tirupparankundram S. M. Seenivel died soon after the results of the general elections were declared in May 2016, his successor A. K. Bose, also from the ruling party, died two years later. In Gudiyatham, the first by-election was caused by the disqualification of rebel AIADMK MLA C. Jayanthi Padmanabhan.
