Chennai: Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal has issued notices to three AIADMK MLAs siding with rival leader and AMMK founder TTV Dhinakaran, days after the ruling party petitioned him for action against them for alleged anti-party activities.

Official sources said the Speaker issued notices to A Prabhu (Kallakurichi), VT Kalaiselvan (Vriddhachalam)and E Rathinasabapathy (Aranthangi) based on the petition filed by chief Government whip S Rajendran seeking "due legal action" against them.

The three MLAs have been given a week's time to respond.

However, the party’s media coordinator Kovai Selvaraj has alleged that TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK and Stalin’s DMK are in a secret alliance in order to damage the credibility of the AIADMK.

It was because of this reason that TTV Dhinakaran had sent Senthil Balaji from AMMK to the DMK, claimed Selvaraj.

Also read: DMK’s Senthil Balaji: Stalin will become Tamil Nadu chief minister; AIADMK dismisses him as ‘not important’

Selvaraj said that for the past two years, DMK and AMMK have been trying to bring down the AIADMK. But their efforts are in vain since the people of Tamil Nadu are with the AIADMK and chief minister Edappadi Palanisamy, he added.

Selvaraj stated that AMMK and the DMK are in fear that they will not be politically stable if the ruling party finishes their term. 

Selvaraj further went on to say that the reason for TTV Dhinakaran to vehemently bring down the government is because he continues to be angry that former chief minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa had dismissed him from the party.

DMK, which has been opposing any action on the AIADMK's petition, dubbed Dhanapal's move as "murder of democracy", and submitted a resolution seeking his removal from the post.

The resolution undertaken by the leader of the opposition in the Assembly and DMK chief MK Stalin was handed over to the Assembly secretary, party leader RS  Bharathi told reporters.

The DMK and the MDMK have opposed any possible disqualification of the three MLAs claiming that the AIADMK's move was "only to protect" the Palaniswami government as it will 'lose' majority after the outcome of the bypolls to 22 Assembly seats.

Bypolls were held to 18 seats on April 18 and four more segments will get into election mode on May 19. Stalin has last week threatened to move a no-confidence motion against the Speaker if he heeded the ruling party's plea.

The Speaker's decision was detrimental to the Tamil Nadu Assembly's ethos and it also showed that he "did not act" in a nonpartisan manner, Stalin alleged.

The resolution has been submitted as per Article 179 (c) of the Constitution and Tamil Nadu Assembly Rule 68 both of which govern the procedure for removal of the Speaker.

Since the House is not in session now, the resolution would have to wait till it convenes.

In the 234-member state Assembly with 22 vacancies, the AIADMK has a strength of 113, excluding the Speaker. The simple majority mark in the full House is 117.

The principal opposition DMK along with its allies, including Congress, has 97 MLAs.