Tough task ahead for Opposition leaders

Glowfly

Editor

posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

57
views

CHENNAI: With AIADMK general secretary and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa taking centrestage in the State Assembly, Oppo..

CHENNAI: With AIADMK general secretary and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa taking centrestage in the State Assembly, Opposition heavyweights Vijaykanth and M K Stalin will have their work cut out for them inside the House.
As a firsttime member of the Assembly between 200611, Vijaykanth's performance in House proceedings was hardly encouraging. He would take part in proceedings for only a few days and then skip the Assembly for several days. Even when he attended Assembly, he rarely spoke.But as Leader of Opposition in his second term as MLA, Vijaykanth will need an image overhaul.

That the position has been held by several veteran politicians in the past, including former chief minister M Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, is something that will be running in the back of his mind.

Already, Vijaykanth and Panruti S Ramachandran have promised that the party would play the role of a constructive opposition and would not hesitate to point out the wrongdoings of the ruling party. This means, of course, that Vijayakanth needs to show a lot of improvement in his Assembly performance.

However, in Assembly, Stalin has intervened only if it was absolutely necessary for him to do so, and that too only if the issue concerned a department he was holding charge of.