Putting an end to the ongoing political drama in Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K Palanisamy today took oath as the chief minister, leaving the supporters of O Panneerselvam a bit disappointed. The oath taking ceremony took place at Rajbhavan, where governor C Vidyasagar Rao had invited AIADMK to form government. The new AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu will have 31 ministers, all of whom took oath today.
Out of the 31 newly elected ministers, most were hired first by the caretaker chief minister, O Panneerselvam. Except for K Pandiarajan, who was made education minister in Panneerselvam government and later changed loyalty to move to Panneerselvam’s camp. Along with the ministers, most of the portfolios have also been kept same as they were in Panneerselvam’s time.
After Sasikala was convicted in the disproportionate assets case, she had appointed Edappadi K Palanisamy as the leader of legislators and the government had asked AIADMK to form government. Yesterday, Palanisamy had met the governor with the list of MLAs in his support. Governor has now asked the government to seek a vote of confidence in the state assembly within 15 days, which will most likely take place on Saturday.
Within the last 9 months, Palanisamy became the third AIADMK leader to take oath as Tamil Nadu chief minister. After the assembly polls in 2016, Jayalalithaa had become chief minister, however, her demise on 5th December made way for Panneerselvam to become Cm, who had filled in as a replacement for Jayalalithaa in past as well.
The politics in Tamil Nadu looks sorted as of now, which has seen a lot of turns of events in the last few weeks. However, the surety of a stable government can be given only after the vote of confidence in assembly, which is due on Saturday.