Sabapathy elected Speaker of Assembly

PUDUCHERRY: V Sabapathy alias Kothandaraman, ruling All India N R Congress legislator, had perhaps the right credentials to get elected to one of the most coveted posts in the Puducherry Assembly. On Wednesday, the 67-year-old politician, who is also a six-time MLA, was elected unopposed as speaker of the Assembly. However, his joy might have been marred with the opposition parties of the Congress, AIADMK and the DMK boycotting the Assembly session. Strangely enough, the opposition had not fielded any candidate in the election.  Sabapathy, who was elected from Ariyankuppam in the April 13 polls, has become the 18th speaker of the 13th Assembly. He had joined AINRC after quitting Congress a few weeks ahead of the polls.As soon as the house assembled at 9.30 am, pro-tem speaker T Thiagarajan announced that Sabapathy alias Kothandaraman had been elected unopposed as the speaker. In the absence of opposition members, Sabapathy was accompanied to the chair by the Chief Minister N Rangasamy, ministers M Chandrakasu and NG Paneerselvam and party MLAs. Ministers M Chandrakasu, P Rajavelu, PNL Kalyanasundaram and NG Paneerselvam and all AINRC MLAs heaped praise on Sabapathy.In the 30-member Assembly with one vacancy, the AINRC has a strength of 14 while the Congress has seven members, AIADMK five and DMK two. There is a lone independent VMC Sivakumar who is extending crucial support to the ruling party.Chief minister N Rangasamy appealed to the opposition MLAs to participate in the proceedings. He could not understand why they had boycotted the proceedings as he felt that Sabapathy had been the best choice, with his being elected for the sixth time going in his favour. Also, the opposition members had neither participated in the proceedings nor expressed their views. The public, however, had been glued to the happenings, he said. Further, he said that AINRC was given the mandate to govern by electing 15 MLAs, which translated to 31 per cent votes Sabapathy said that in a democracy, the opposition MLAs could have attended the session and expressed their views or grievances in the Assembly.