CHENNAI: TVK MLA JCD Prabhakar was elected as the speaker of the 17th Tamil Nadu legislative assembly on Tuesday. He was accompanied by TVK founder and chief minister C Joseph Vijay.As no other nominations were filed for the post, Prabhakar was elected unopposed.Prabhakar, who represents the Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai, submitted his nomination papers on Monday to Assembly principal secretary K Srinivasan.The 73-year-old leader is a former AIADMK MLA who joined TVK ahead of the assembly elections.Considered one of the senior-most legislators in the ruling alliance, he played a key organisational role in Vijay’s election campaign and was also involved in preparing the party’s manifesto.Prabhakar’s appointment marks a significant development in the newly formed TVK-led government.In the previous DMK government, senior leader Duraimurugan served as the leader of the House, while former chief minister O Panneerselvam held the position during the AIADMK regime from 2018 to 2021.
