In A First, Vijay Leaves Chief Minister's Seat, Sits With Ministers In Assembly

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Thursday made heads turn in the state Assembly when he casually moved from his chair in the House and sat beside ministers in the front row, marking a major departure from a long-standing tradition vis-a-vis seating.

Normally, the chief minister occupies a separate and spacious chair close to the Speaker's Chair, and the ministers are seated separately, next to him, as per their seniority, in the front row. The facing row is occupied by the Leader of the Opposition and leaders of the Legislature parties based on their numerical strength in the 234-member House, with their respective party members behind.

In the afternoon session, Vijay casually moved from his chair, located on the right side of Speaker J C D Prabhakar, and sat between Ministers K A Sengottaiyan (also Leader of the House) and Aadhav Arjuna. According to a source, in the past no chief minister sat on the seat meant for ministers.

Normally, the ministers or legislators change their positions for a brief while to speak with their colleagues. But this perhaps is the first time a chief minister has shifted from his official chair to have a word with his colleagues.

Earlier in the day, Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin pointed out that the department secretaries should be asked to be present in the House when important issues are raised in the House by the members. "The Speaker mentioned that the then chief minister spoke about the Karur (stampede) incident during the previous DMK regime.

Then our leader and CM (M K Stalin) was present in the House and so were the chief secretary and department secretaries. Now, both the chief minister and department secretaries are not present in the House," Udhayanidhi said.

Responding, Aadhav Arjuna said the secretaries were present in the adjoining "war room" and taking notes from the members' speeches. The Speaker concurred with Udhayanidhi and said the senior officials will be asked to be present in the House during Assembly sessions.

The Chief Minister had attended certain government events earlier in the day, and had turned up for the session later. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)