In a shocking development that surfaced furor around the Tamil Nadu opposition DMK, the party's sitting MLA has been hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit after she had allegedly consumed sleeping pills due to an issue with the party. She has been receiving treatments and the party had denied its role in what she has done. 

Poongothai Aladi Aruna is the daughter of late DMK Minister Aladi Aruna. She has been serving as the party's legislator in the current legislative assembly representing the Alangulam constituency in Tenkasi district. According to reports, Poongothai had participated in a party meeting held at Kadayam in Tenkasi on Wednesday evening in which she was said to have faced disappointing moments after some of the party members had picked up an argument with her on her method of functioning. 

The reports say that some of the party members had directly questioned her for not visiting two bereaved families of party functionaries in the area where she got a decent number of votes when she won the constituency in the 2016 assembly polls. A video that was taken in the meeting was widely spread on social media in which the legislator was sitting on the floor. 

Poongothai was not given a seat on the stage and she was instructed to sit along with the members and booth agents. As a sign of refusal, she sat on the floor. The video further showed that she was falling at the feet of the partymen during the meeting. However, when the meeting had seen a heated war of words, Poongothai, one of the important party legislators, had left the meeting and returned home. 

She was said to have endured disappointment from the meeting which, the reports say, could have driven her to consume more sleeping pills. Poongothai was found unconscious by a relative in the house where she was staying at Alangulam. She was then rushed to a private hospital in Tirunelveli district and when the incident made headlines, the party has been surfaced with controversies after the incident was dubbed to be happened due to the intra-party political fight. 

She was admitted to Shifa hospital in Tirunelveli on Thursday for treatment. However, the hospital hasn't confirmed the reports that the legislator was in an unconscious state and said that she was responding to treatment. In its health bulletin, the hospital said Poongothai was admitted in an unconscious state and at present, she remains awake, responsive, and her vital parameters are satisfactory. 

The hospital said that owing to her current clinical condition, she has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and she has been getting continuously monitored by a team of doctors. On the other hand, amid the furor, the DMK had denied allegations of an internal party dispute that led her to a suicide attempt. Senior DMK leaders including RS Bharathi, who is close to MK Stalin, had visited the MLA in the hospital and Bharathi said that there was no internal dispute within the party and he negated the allegations that the internal dispute was the reason for her hospitalization. 

According to PTI, Bharathi said, "I met Poongothai at the hospital after our president Stalin asked me to visit her. She is conscious and I am confident about her discharge from the hospital on Friday". Some reports say that there has been a family issue between the legislator and one of her brothers, who is also a member of the party. Her brother was seated on the stage during the meeting while she was made to sit down due to which she could have consumed sleeping pills. 

Poongathai has been one of the prominent women in the party and she had also served as a cabinet minister during DMK's Karunanidhi regime from 2009-2011. The reports say that the Tenkasi police department hasn't received any complaint concerning the incident and the police had assured action based on the complaint.