PUDUCHERRY: T Thiagarajan stole a march over his political foe R Radhakrishnan, ex-speaker of the Territorial Assembly, when he was elected pro-tem speaker by Lieutenant Governor Iqbal Singh. In the Assembly elections, Thiagarajan had defeated R Radhakrishnan in Bahour constituency. The newly appointed pro-tem speaker will be sworn in at Raj Nivas on June 1. As per the notification issued by the government on Monday, Thiagarajan has been delegated powers to administer the oath of office to the other elected members. He will continue as pro-tem speaker till a speaker is chosen by the elected members.Thiagarajan served as parliamentary secretary to the Chief Minister in the previous Assembly till he resigned on March 19 to join the All India NR Congress (AINRC).Like Chief Minister N Rangasamy, he was also elected to the Assembly on a Congress ticket for the first time in 1991 from Kuruvinatham constituency (which ceased to exist after the delimitation of constituencies). In the next election also, he won from the same constituency. However, in 2001 he lost the seat to R Radhakrishnan of Puducherry Makkal Congress (PMC). But following merger of PMC with Congress, Thiagarajan did not get the ticket to contest in 2006 elections as it was given to Radhakrishnan who won. However, the Congress nominated Thiagarajan as MLA to the Assembly and subsequently he was made parliamentary secretary to the Chief Minister.But in the 2011 elections, when the indications of Congress giving the seat to Radhakrishnan instead of him became clear, he quit Congress to join AINRC. Thiagarajan had the last laugh when he defeated Radhakrishnan by 2,055 votes.
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