Overview
- M. R. Vijayabhaskar personally submitted a handwritten resignation that Speaker J. C. D. Prabhakar accepted on Monday, and the Karur Assembly seat was officially notified as vacant.
- The accepted resignation reduces AIADMK’s strength in the 234‑member House from 47 to 41 and brings the total number of vacant seats to seven, prompting the Assembly Secretariat to notify the Election Commission for bypoll scheduling.
- Multiple reports say Vijayabhaskar is expected to join Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam but that formal induction had not been confirmed at the time of reporting.
- Vijayabhaskar was one of the 25 AIADMK MLAs who defied the party whip to support the TVK government during the May 13 confidence motion, a move that preceded several resignations and party exits.
- The upcoming by-elections are widely seen as the immediate route for TVK, which holds 107 seats on its own, to try to convert defections into electoral gains and move closer to a standalone majority.