Chennai: After 59 years, Congress will have ministers in the Tamil Nadu government as Chief Minister Vijay inducted two of the party’s MLAs in his cabinet on Thursday.
The party was politically sidelined in the state after the rise of the Dravidian parties like DMK and the AIADMK.
The expanded Cabinet of CM Vijay has 21 MLAs from his TVK party and 2 from the ally Congress. Two of the important allies, the IUML and the VCK, are not part of the Cabinet, however. A report citing sources in NDTV claimed that both IUML and VCK have been allocated one Cabinet berth each. But they have not yet named their ministerial candidates. They will be inducted into the government at a later stage, the report claimed.
The TVK leadership has continued to invite parties like VCK, CPI, CPM and IUML, which are at present extending outside support to the government, to join the coalition ministry.
Vijay took oath as CM with nine ministers on May 10. He can have 35 ministers in his Cabinet. With 23 new ministers joining in, the Vijay government has 32 ministers now.
As many as 21 MLAs from the TVK, including Srinath, Kamali S, C Vijayalakshmi, RV Ranjithkumar, Vinoth, Rajeev, B Rajkumar, V Gandhiraj, Mathan Raja P, Jegadeshwari K, Rajesh Kumar S, M Vijay Balaji, Logesh Tamilselvan D, Vijay Tamilan Parthiban A, Ramesh, P Viswanathan, Kumar R, Thennarasu K, V Sampath Kumar, Mohamed Farvas J, D Sarathkumar, N Marie Wilson, Vignesh K, took oath on Thursday.
The two Congress MLAs to join the government are Rajesh Kumar and Thiru P. Vishwanathan. The last time Congress ran a government in the state was under M. Bhaktavatsalam. He had served as the last Congress Chief Minister. His term had concluded in March 1967, when the party had lost to DMK led by CN Annadurai.
