Barely three days after a resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa reshuffled her Cabinet, dropping three Ministers and inducting as many on Monday in an exercise that seemed to reward some party seniors for their sustained organisational work during the poll campaign.
Agriculture Minister S. Damodaran, Labour Minister K.T. Pachamal and Revenue Minister B.V. Ramana have been dropped from the Cabinet, while Agri S.S. Krishnamoorthy (Kalasapakkam constituency), S.P. Velumani (Thondamuthur constituency) and S. Gokula Indira (Anna Nagar constituency) have been inducted. Simultaneously, Ms. Jayalalithaa has effected a reshuffle of several portfolios.
Mr. Krishnamoorthy will now be Agriculture Minister. He will also take care of Horticulture and Sugarcane Development among other subjects.
Mr. Velumani is the new Municipal Administration and Rural Development Minister and will also look after Law, Courts and Prisons, as also Personnel and Administrative Reforms.
Municipal Administration and Rural Development Minister K.P. Munusamy has been made the Labour Minister.
Sports and Youth Welfare Minister R.B. Udhayakumar has been made the Revenue Minister and he would look after District Revenue Establishment, Deputy Collectors, and Registration of Companies among other things.
Ms. Gokula Indira is the new Handlooms and Textiles Minister, the portfolio hitherto held by S. Sundararaj. The latter has been shifted to Sports and Youth Welfare, a portfolio earlier handled by Mr. Udhayakumar.
The new Ministers would be sworn in on Tuesday, according to a communiqué from the Raj Bhavan.
Meanwhile, Ms. Jayalalithaa shunted out party secretaries in Dharmapuri, Kanyakumari and Thiruvallur districts as also the secretary of the Puducherry unit. The AIADMK candidates lost in Kanyakumari, Dharmapuri and Puducherry in the recent elections.
Earlier in the day, the AIADMK’s Karur MP M. Thambi Durai, was elected the Parliamentary Party leader at a meeting of the newly elected MPs chaired by Ms. Jayalalithaa.
Rajya Sabha member V. Maitreyan has been chosen as the deputy leader. Mr. Thambi Durai will also double as the leader of the AIADMK in the Lok Sabha, while Tiruvallur MP P. Venugopal will be the deputy leader and Tiruchi MP P. Kumar will be the party whip.
In the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Maitreyan will head the AIADMK group and S. Muthukaruppan and L. Sasikala Pushpa will be the whip of the party.
