D. Jayakumar and P. Dhanapal, both belonging to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, are set to be declared Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Assembly on Friday. Thursday was the last date for filing of nominations.
In the morning, Mr. Jayakumar and Mr. Dhanapal submitted their papers to Assembly Secretary A.M.P. Jamaludeen at the Secretariat.
No other nominations were filed. Pro-tem Speaker C.K. Thamizharasan will make the formal announcement on Friday in the House.
Mr. Jayakumar and Mr. Dhanapal represent Royapuram and Rasipuram Assembly constituencies. The 50-year-old Mr. Jayakumar was Minister for Fisheries, Law, Electricity and Information Technology in the AIADMK regimes of 1991-1996 and 2001-2006.
The 60-year-old Mr. Dhanapal, who was elected from the Sankari constituency four times, held the portfolio of Food and Cooperation for one-and-a-half years during the previous spell of the AIADMK government.
Since Independence, 15 persons each have held the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Those who held the post of Speaker were J. Sivashanmugam Pillai (1946-1955); N. Gopala Menon (1955-1956); U. Krishna Rao (1957-1961); S. Chellapandian (1962-1967); Si.Ba. Adithanar (1967-1968); Pulavar K. Govindan (1969-1971 and 1973-1977); K.A. Mathiazhagan (1971-1972); Munu Adhi (1977-1980); K. Rajaram (1980-1985); P.H. Pandian (1985-1989); M. Tamizhkudimagan (1989-1991); R. Muthiah (1991-1996); P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan (1996-2001); K. Kalimuthu (2001-2006) and R. Avudaiappan (2006-2011).
The post of Deputy Speaker was held by Ammanna Raja (1946-1952); B. Baktavatsalu Naidu (1952-1962); K. Parthasarathi (1962-1967); Pulavar K. Govindan (1967-1969); G.R. Edmund (1969-1971); P. Seenivasan (1971-1974); N. Ganapathy (1974-1976); S. Thirunavukkarasar (1977-1980); P.H. Pandian (1980-1984); V.P. Balasubramanian (1985-1988); V.P. Duraisamy (1989-1991 and 2006-2011); K. Ponnusamy (1991-1993); S. Gandhirajan (1993-1996); Parithi Ellamvazhuthi (1996-2001) and A.. Arunachalam (2001-2006).
