Tamil Nadu Timeline

PoliticsDMK-AIADMK alternation

Clash in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on budget day

· Fort St. George

DMK and AIADMK members clashed in the Assembly as Karunanidhi rose to present the budget; Jayalalithaa left vowing to return only as Chief Minister.

On 25 March 1989, as Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi rose to present the state budget, Opposition Leader J. Jayalalithaa demanded his resignation, and a confrontation broke out between DMK and AIADMK members. Budget papers were torn, Karunanidhi's spectacles were broken, and Jayalalithaa's party said she had been attacked by ruling party members in front of Speaker M. Tamilkudimagan. Jayalalithaa left the House, vowing not to return except as Chief Minister. The incident received wide media coverage and featured in the 1989 Lok Sabha campaign; accounts of it remain contested between the two parties.

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