The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’s (TVK) J.C.D. Prabhakar, who represents the Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai, was on Tuesday (May 12, 2026) unanimously elected as the Speaker of the 17th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.
M. Ravisankar, the Thuraiyur constituency legislator, was elected unanimously as the Deputy Speaker. No other nominations were received for either post, barring theirs.
Soon after Pro-tem Speaker M.V. Karuppaiah declared Mr. Prabhakar’s unanimous election, Leader of the House K.A. Sengottaiyan and Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin — following long-standing tradition — escorted the new Speaker to the Chair. All members, including Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, rose to greet him. Mr. Sengottaiyan and Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin later posed for photographs with the new Speaker.
The Speaker then announced the unanimous election of Mr. Ravisankar as Deputy Speaker. In his speech after taking over as Chair, Mr. Prabhakar recalled his long association with former Chief Ministers M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa, as well as the late leader G.K. Moopanar. He added that he had been waiting for an able leadership like theirs to follow, until he finally found it in TVK president Mr. Vijay.
Describing Mr. Vijay as a “living MGR”, the Speaker said his election to the 17th Tamil Nadu Assembly was due to the TVK leader. Quoting verses from the holy texts, the Quran, the Bible, and the Bhagavad Gita, the Speaker said that his actions in the House would be non-partisan.
Mr. Vijay, Mr. Udhayanidhi, and former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami spoke, greeting the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
S. Rajesh Kumar (Congress), S. Kamaraj (AMMK), R. Chellaswamy (CPI-M), Vanni Arasu (VCK), Syed Farooq Basha SSB (IUML), T. Ramachandran (CPI), Kadayanallur MLA T.M. Rajendran, Chidambaram MLA M. Thamimun Ansari, BJP MLA M. Bhojarajan, Pollachi MLA K. Nithyanandhan, Nagapattinam MLA M.H. Jawahirullah, PMK MLA Sowmiya Anbumani, DMDK MLA Premallatha Vijayakant also spoke, greeting Mr. Prabhakar and Mr. Ravisankar.