Stalin sworn in as TN chief minister, 15 new faces in Ministry

Chennai: DMK president M K Stalin was sworn in as chief minister of Tamil Nadu on May 7, 2021, at a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan, following the spectacular victory of the DMK-led front in the April 6 elections to the State Assembly. 33 Ministers were also sworn in, with a mixed bag of party veterans and experienced leaders, and 15 new faces. Governor Banwarilal Purohit performed the honours.

Stalin will hold Home, public, general administration, all India services, district revenue officers, special programme implementation and welfare of differently abled persons.
DMK general secretary Duraimurugan, who will be number two in the cabinet, was appointed Minister for Water Resources in charge of irrigation projects and others including mines and minerals.

Duraimurugan is among 18 former Ministers who have been inducted in the Cabinet.

Former Chennai Mayor Ma Subramanian (Health and Family Welfare) and party's north Chennai strongman, P K Sekar Babu (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments) are among the 15 who would be first time Ministers.

Palanivel Thiagarajan, a former investment banker and well versed in economics, has been allocated Finance and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi School Education department.
Thiagarajan and Poyyamozhi, who would be ministers for the first time, belong to prominent families that spearheaded the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu and also worked for the DMK for decades – PT Rajan and his son PTR Palanivel Rajan, and Anbil Dharmalingam.

The cabinet has two women ministers, P Geetha Jeevan, a former minister, who has been given social welfare and women empowerment and N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj (Adi Dravidar Welfare), who defeated State BJP president L Murugan in the Dharapuram constituency.
V Senthil Balaji, who was a transport minister between 2011 and 2015 during the previous AIADMK rule led by J Jayalalithaa and who joined the DMK in 2018, has been given the electricity department and portfolios of prohibition and excise.

Tiruchirappalli-based party veteran and former Minister, K N Nehru has been given the Municipal Administration portfolio, while KKSSR Ramachandran, another veteran, would handle Revenue.

I Periyasamy, who was Revenue Minister during the previous DMK government gets Cooperation. K Ponmudi is back with the higher education department which he held during 2006-11.

Tiruvannamalai's party strongman, E V Velu, who had held the Food portfolio earlier, has been entrusted the powerful portfolio of Public Works. M R K Panneerselvam, also a former Minister, is the new Minister for Agriculture and Welfare of Farmers.

Another former minister Thangam Thennarasu, and S Reghupathy, former union mininster of state for environment, would handle Industries and Law respectively.
K R Periakaruppan, T M Anbarasan, M P Saminathan, all former Ministers, would take care of Rural Development, Rural Industries and Information and Publicity. K Ramachandran, a former Minister, has been given Forests department.

S Muthusamy (Housing), Anita R Radhakrishnan (Fisheries) and S R Rajakannappan (Transport) are among the senior party leaders who form part of the 34-member Cabinet.

C V Ganesan (Labour), T Mano Thangaraj (Information Technology), M Mathiventhan (Tourism) are among the first time Ministers, which includes R Sakkarapani (Food), R Gandhi (Handlooms and Textiles), P Moorthy (Commercial Taxes), S S Sivasankar (Backward Classes Welfare), Siva V Meyyanathan (Environment), Gingee K S Masthan (Minorities Welfare) and S M Nasar (Dairy).

Former deputy chief minister and AIADMK co-ordinator O Panneerselvam and MNM leader Kamal Haasan besides representatives of other parties were among those who attended the swearing-in ceremony.