AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has nominated Dhanapal, elected from Rasipuram (SC) constituency in Namakkal district for the post, vacated by D Jayakumar last week.
With numbers on the ruling AIADMK's side, the election of 61-year-old Dhanapal, a four-time MLA, as Speaker will in all certainty be a smooth affair.
In a surprise development, Jayakumar, a four-time MLA from the Royapuram constituency in Chennai, who became Speaker soon after AIADMK came to power in May last, quit the post.
Though the reason for Jayakumar's resignation was not known yet, party circles criticised him for "having indulged in self-promotion" and "encouraging factionalism".
The style in which he celebrated his birthday recently was an illustration of his ways of functioning, they said.