Chennai’s prominent vestige of the colonial era, Fort St. George, where the diamond jubilee celebration of the State Assembly is going to take place on Friday, has been the home of the legislature for most of the time all these years.
Except for the periods of 1952-1956 and 2010-2011, the Assembly always functioned from the Fort.
After the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam emerged victorious in the 2011 Assembly elections, the House moved back to the Fort after it held its sittings at the new Assembly-Secretariat complex on Government Estate from March 2010 to February 2011.
Subsequent to the first general elections held in January 1952 on the basis of adult suffrage, the Assembly met, on May 3, 1952, at an exclusively constructed building on the Wallajah Road side of the Estate. Built then at a cost of Rs. 10 lakh, the building was raised to accommodate the then strength of the Assembly (375 members). At that time, many parts of the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka were part of the Madras State. The building, which accommodated the Assembly till December 27, 1956, later came to be known as Children's Theatre or Kalaivanar Arangam. It was demolished in December 2009 during the construction of the new Assembly-Secretariat complex.
A plan has been drawn up to raise a fresh auditorium at the same site.
In the last 60 years, only once did the Assembly meet outside Chennai. That was in 1959.
The Arranmore Palace, Udhagamandalam, hosted the legislature.
While the Assembly met during April 20 to 30, the now-defunct Legislative Council held its deliberations between May 4 and May 9.
After the States Re-organisation Act came into force in November 1956, the strength of the Assembly went down considerably.
As a result, the House went back to the Fort, which was its venue till January 2010. After a brief interlude, the Assembly is functioning from the Fort since May 23, 2011.
