Chennai, May 6 (PTI) Makkal Needhi Maiam Vice President R Mahendran on Thursday resigned from the party, saying "there seemed to be no democracy" in the Kamal Haasan-led organisation.

The decision of the party's number two ranked leader came on a day when MNM announced that seven other senior functionaries have also tendered their "resignation."

Mahendran, who unsuccessfully contested the April 6 Assembly polls from Singanallur constituency in Coimbatore, told reporters he submitted a letter to Haasan, informing his resignation from the party post as well as its primary membership.

He blamed a "few advisors" at "the top" over the running of the party and said Haasan's way of steering the party "is not okay."

Mahendran said he "felt like there is no democracy."

"Many worked hard with the hope that this will change after polls. So I stayed with him (Haasan) but felt that in the last month or so there was no change in his approach."

He said he came armed with his resignation letter to the party's Executive Committee meeting today and handed it over to Haasan.

Meanwhile, the party in an official statement said that besides Mahendran, other seniors including AG Maurya, M Muruganandam, CK Kumaravel and Umadevi "gave their resignation letters."

Haasan will soon consider them, it said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)