Sasikala loyalist Palaniswami takes oath as new TN CM

Chennai: K. Palaniswami, a loyalist of the jailed AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, on Thursday took oath as Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister, ending for now an ugly war within the ruling party.
Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to Palaniswami, 63, and his team at the Raj Bhavan, only hours after inviting him to form a government.
Palaniswami took oath in Tamil, followed by 30 ministers in batches. He has to prove his majority in the assembly within 15 days.
The assembly has, however, been convened on Saturday and the Sasikala faction said it was confident of proving its majority of at least 117 legistors in the house of 234.
“We have the support of 125 legislators and we will prove our majority,” V.N.Virugai Ravi, a legislator, said.
Palaniswami has retained the crucial Finance Ministry he had in the outgoing government of O. Panneerselvam, whose attempt to foil Sasikala’s bid to be the Chief Minister led to bitter fighting in the AIADMK.
A Raj Bhavan statement said senior party leaders C. Sreenivasan and K.A. Sengottaiyan — the only new face in the cabinet — were designated as Minister for Forests and Minister for School Education and Sports and Youth Welfare.
P. Thangamani will be in charge of Electricity, Prohibition and Excise.
The other ministers are: K. Raju, S.P. Velumani, D. Jayakumar, C.Ve. Shanmugam, K.P. Anbalagan, V. Saroja, M.C. Sampath, K.C. Karuppanan, R. Kamaraj, O.S. Manian, K. Radhakrishnan, C. Vijaya Baskar, R. Doraikkannu, Kadambur Raju, R.B. Udhayakumar, N. Natarajan, K.C. Veeramani, K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji, P. Benjamin, Nilofer Kafeel, M.R. Vijayabaskar, M. Manikandan, V.M. Rajjalakshmi, G. Baskaran, S. Ramachandran, S. Valarmathi and P. Balakrishna Reddy.
Dropped from the previous cabinet are Panneerselvam and former School Education Minister K. Pandiarajan. (IANS)