Trouble began soon after the House convened for the Budget session on Wednesday morning, when AIADMK members, led by Opposition Leader O Panneerselvam and party whip K A Sengottaiyan, alleged irregularities in the recent general elections, in which the ruling DMK romped home with an unexpected victory.

When Speaker R Avudaiappan refused permission to raise the issue formally, AIADMK members barring Shekher staged a walkout. Opposition parties PMK, MDMK and the Left parties, too, followed suit after the Speaker refused permission to raise the issue of money and muscle power allegedly deciding the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls.

Shekher, once one of the prominent Brahmin faces of the AIADMK, has fallen out of favour with Jayalalithaa, and was the only Opposition member inside the House at this point.

Matters worsened when the Speaker, after recording the felicitations to Stalin offered by state Finance Minister K Anbazhagan and Congress whip Peter Alphonse, asked if anyone else wished to congratulate the new Deputy Chief Minister. At this point, Shekher stood up to congratulate Karunanidhi’s younger son and added that he was facing threats to “life and property” from AIADMK members.

Infuriated AIADMK leaders then barged back into the House, demanding that the Speaker disallow Shekher to make his speech. However, Avudaiappan refused to entertain their plea, leading to loud boos, slogans and a second walkout on the first day of the session.

Incidentally, Shekher’s relations with the party high command became strained soon after he was elected as the MLA from Mylapore — a stronghold of Tamil Brahmins — in 2006, when he defeated present Union Minister of State D Napoleon.

According to sources, his invitations to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and Kanchi Mutt seer Jayendra Saraswathi — put behind bars by Jayalalithaa on charges including murder — for two different functions had riled the party leadership.

During the Assembly session in August last, his party colleagues ignored him completely, with no one speaking to him or even sitting next to him.