Resigned Assembly membership due to disillusionment with AIADMK leadership: Esakki Subaya tells Madras High Court
AIADMK MLA E. Subaya alias Esakki Subaya (62), now with the TVK, on Monday (June 29, 2026) told the Madras High Court his resignation from
AIADMK MLA E. Subaya alias Esakki Subaya (62), now with the TVK, on Monday (June 29, 2026) told the Madras High Court his resignation from the Legislative Assembly was entirely voluntary as well as genuine and he took the decision due to total disillusionment with the AIADMK leadership. In a counter affidavit filed before Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan, he also said, the decision was born out of his own conscience and it was completely free from any form of external pressure, coercion, orchestration, or pecuniary inducement from any quarter whatsoever. The counter was filed in response to two writ petitions preferred by AIADMK whip Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy who had challenged Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar’s decision to accept the resignations of Mr. Subaya and three other MLAs when disqualification proceedings were pending against them. Subaya claimed he was not aware of any meeting having been convened by the AIADMK to elect its general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the legislature party leader or Mr. Krishnamurthy as the chief whip before Chief Minister C.
Joseph Vijay moved a motion seeking vote of confidence on May 13, 2026. Therefore, he claimed to have joined a majority of 25 out of 47 AIADMK MLAs in voting in favour of the motion. After the voting, he was stripped of all party posts despite having spent over 20 years in the AIADMK and serving as a MLA twice besides holding the position of Minister for Law for a brief period. The former MLA also stated he came to know about the AIADMK having reportedly passed a resolution on May 9, 2026 electing Mr. Palaniswami as the legislature party leader and Mr. Krishnamurthy as the whip only after the initiation of disqualification proceedings against him at the instance of that party. “I categorically state that I never received any notice, invitation, or intimation regarding this alleged meeting, nor did I attend, participate in, or consent to it. Furthermore, the resolution completely lacks essential details such as the venue, agenda, convening authority, or minutes, completely deviating from the established official practice and procedure consistently followed by the AIADMK when recording valid party resolutions,” his counter read.
It went on to state: “Crucially, I state that my signature is found in the list. I state that this signature could have been obtained from me for some other purposes and has been misused as if I had participated and voted in the meeting called on May 9, 2026. I state that I have every reason to believe that my signature has been misused without my knowledge, authority, or consent to falsely establish unanimity for a meeting that lacks any credible contemporaneous proof of ever having taken place.” The petitioner asserted he had received only two WhatsApp messages on May 11 and May 12 asking him to vote against the confidence motion without there being any credible evidence to believe that such instruction had been issued by the party general secretary through the whip. Further, stating he had resigned his MLA post on May 26, 2026 only after deep deliberations and consultations with his supporters for nearly 13 days, Mr. Subaya said, he subsequently joined the TVK to continue his public service and political journey.
The BriefWire