Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay at the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, in Chennai. (ANI Photo)
Twenty-three Tamil Nadu MLAs on Thursday took oath in Chief Minister Vijay Joseph’s Council of Ministers. Governor Rajendra Arlekar approved their appointments. Of the 23 MLAs, 21 are from Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and 2 are from the Congress. With this, the Congress has returned to the Tamil Nadu government in 6 decades.
Notably, two key allies – the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) – were left out of the latest Cabinet expansion. Both parties, which have two MLAs each, play an important role in supporting the TVK-led government numerically.
The TVK leadership has continued its efforts to persuade VCK, CPI, CPM and IUML, all of which currently extend outside support to the government, to formally become part of the coalition ministry.
Vijay had earlier taken oath as Chief Minister along with nine ministers on May 10. Under the constitutional limit, the Tamil Nadu Cabinet can have a maximum of 35 ministers, which is 15 per cent of the Assembly strength. With the addition of 23 ministers on Thursday, the strength of the Vijay-led Cabinet has now gone up to 32, leaving three vacancies that could be allotted to VCK and IUML.
The two Congress legislators inducted into the Cabinet are Rajesh Kumar and Thiru P Vishwanathan. Their inclusion marks Congress’s return to the Tamil Nadu government after nearly six decades.
The Congress last headed the state government under M Bhaktavatsalam, who served as the final Congress Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu before his term ended in March 1967.
In the landmark 1967 Assembly elections, the Congress was voted out of power by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by CN Annadurai. Since then, the party had remained outside the government in Tamil Nadu until joining the Vijay-led ministry now.
Name
1
Srinath (214 Thoothukudi Assembly Constituency)
2
Kamali. S (112 Avinashi Assembly Constituency)
3
C. Vijayalakshmi (97 Kumarapalayam Assembly Constituency)
4
R.V. Ranjithkumar (37 Kancheepuram Assembly Constituency)
5
Vinoth (171 Kumbakonam Assembly Constituency)
6
Rajeev (210 Thiruvadanai Assembly Constituency)
7
B. Rajkumar (155 Cuddalore Assembly Constituency)
8
V. Gandhiraj (38 Arakkonam Assembly Constituency)
9
Mathan Raja. P (217 Ottapidaram Assembly Constituency)
10
Jegadeshwari. K (202 Rajapalayam Assembly Constituency)
11
Rajesh Kumar. S (234 Killiyoor Assembly Constituency)
12
M. Vijay Balaji (98 Erode East Assembly Constituency)
13
Logesh Tamilselvan. D (92 Rasipuram Assembly Constituency)
14
Vijay Tamilan Parthiban. A (90 Salem South Assembly Constituency)
15
Ramesh (139 Srirangam Assembly Constituency)
16
P. Viswanathan (188 Melur Assembly Constituency)
17
Kumar. R (26 Velachery Assembly Constituency)
18
Thennarasu. K (29 Sriperumpudhur Assembly Constituency)
19
V. Sampath Kumar (118 Coimbatore North Assembly Constituency)
20
Mohamed Farvas. J (183 Aranthangi Assembly Constituency)
21
D. Sarathkumar (31 Tambaram Assembly Constituency)
22
N. Marie Wilson (11 Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly Constituency)
23
Vignesh K (122 Kinathukadavu Assembly Constituency)
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