Jayalalithaa retains 13 ministers of previous cabinet

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s Cabinet is a mix of those who had previously been ministers during 2011-16, in previous AIADMK tenures and new faces. The AIADMK supremo retained 13 of her ministers in her previous cabinet and inducted several new faces including four women.

Among those retained is Jayalalithaa’s trusted lieutenant and party strongman of Theni district O Panneerselvam, who will again hold Finance portfolio. A key minister in the 2011-16 AIADMK tenure P Thangamani will be the Electricity Minister.

Salem district party veteran Eddapadi K Palaniswami, who was also a minister during 2011-16, will now man the key Public Works Department besides Highways and Minor Ports.

Madurai-based Sellur K Raju and Coimbatore district-based SP Velumani will handle Cooperation and Municipal Administration portfolios respectively.

M C Sampath (Labour), R Kamaraj (Food and Civil Supplies), C Vijayabaskar (Health), S P Shanmuganathan (Milk dairy), R B Udhaya Kumar (Revenue), K T Rajenthra Balaji (Rural Industries), and K C Veeramani (Commercial Taxes).

C V Shanmugam, who had a stint during 2011-16 and dropped later, has also found a place in the cabinet and would handle Law and Courts.

K P Anbazhagan who has been given the Higher Education portfolio was a minister in the AIADMK cabinet during 2003-06.  D Jayakumar, the new Fisheries Minister, was the Speaker for a brief period during Jayalalithaa’s previous tenure.

The new faces are Dindigul Srinivasan (Forest), V Saroja (Social Welfare), KC Karuppannan (Environment), O S Manian (Textiles and Handlooms), Udumalai Radhakrishnan (Housing), R Duraikannu (Agriculture), Kadambur Raju (Information), Benjamin (School Education), Vellamandi N Natarajan (Tourism), S Valamathi (Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare), VM Rajalakshmi (Adi Dravidar Welfare), M Manigandan (Information Technology), and M R Vijayabaskar (Transport).

Four more new names, Nilofer Khafeel (Labour), Sevvoor S. Ramachandran (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments) G.  Baskaran (Khadi and Village Industries Board), and P Balakrishna Reddy (Animal Husbandry), were announced later in the day.