Chennai, Mar 27 (IANS): Congress MLAs arrived at the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Monday wearing black shirts to protest senior leader Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

Leader of the Tamil Nadu Congress Legislative Party, K. Selvaperunthugai led the MLAs and held placards outside the House.

Assembly Speaker M. Appavu denied permission to the legislators to carry their placards inside the House.

The Congress has 18 legislators in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and of these, 11 reached the house wearing black clothes.

The newly-elected Erode East MLA E.V.K.S. Elangovan is absent from the House after being hospitalised for Covid-19.

Selvaperunthugai told IANS that the legislators would conduct an all-night protest dharna against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi.

However, Appavu has denied permission for the dharna within the Assembly premises and sources told IANS that the legislators will now conduct the sit-in protest outside the Assembly.