Legislative council will be revived: Karunanidhi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Wednesday said the government plans to revive the legislative council or the upper house which was abolished in 1986.

Responding to a suggestion from DMK member Anita Radhakrishnan to revive the council, Karunanidhi said he and several other members of the assembly are in agreement with the idea and necessary steps will be taken in this regard.

Revival of the upper house is one of the promises made by the ruling DMK in the run up to the 2006 assembly election.

The party was not successful in reviving the council when it was in power in 1989-91 and 1996-2001 as it did not have a two-thirds majority in the assembly.

The upper house was abolished in 1986 by then AIADMK government headed by M.G. Ramachandran after the fiasco of nominating insolvent Vennira Aadi Nirmala to the council.

Though Nirmala paid her dues from the loan given by AIADMK and the Madras High Court annulled her insolvency ab initio, she withdrew her nomination.

In May that year a resolution for abolishing the council was passed in the assembly. The same year the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council (Abolition) Bill, 1986 was passed by parliament and the act came into force Nov 1, 1986.

Members of the council have become chief ministers twice. In 1952, C. Rajagopalachari was nominated to the council so that he could become chief minister. In 1967, DMK founder C.N. Annadurai became the chief minister and then became a member of the council.