Thaindian News

Chennai, April 12 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu assembly Monday passed a resolution to revive the legislative council or the upper house of the state legislature.
The resolution, put to vote at the insistence of the opposition parties, was passed with 155 votes in favour and 61 against. The state’s legislative council was abolished in 1986.

Surprise support by PMK members gave the major push to the resolution which the ruling alliance partners DMK, Congress and VCK were already supporting.

Those who voted against the resolution were the AIADMK, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the MDMK.

AIADMK general secretary and Leader of the Opposition J. Jayalalithaa and DMDK chief Vijayakant were absent during the voting.

Similarly, two rebel AIADMK legislators also did not participate in the voting.

The Communist Party of India walked out of the house, protesting the introduction of the resolution.

Introducing the resolution, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said that upper house would function inside the new assembly building and the cost involved for running the council will not be high.

Revival of the upper house was one of the promises the DMK made in the run-up to the 2006 assembly elections.

The party was not successful in reviving the council when it was in power in 1989-91 and 1996-2001 as it did not command a two-thirds majority in the assembly.

In the past, two members of the council have become chief ministers.

In 1952, C. Rajagopalachari was nominated to the council so that he could become chief minister. In 1967, DMK founder C.N. Annadurai became the chief minister and then became a council member.