 "J Jayalalithaa takes oath as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the 6th time")
J Jayalalithaa, 68, on Monday was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tami Nadu for the sixth time. The AIADMK chief led her party to victory in the recently-concluded assembly elections. Of the 232 seats (for two seats elections postponed to June), AIADMK won in 134 seats.
The consecutive victory is a rare feat for a political party, which happened almost 35 years back, again for AIADMK. Despite the rivalry between the two parties, DMK treasurer M K Stalin has attended the swearing-in ceremony. This will be the second time Stalin attended Jayalalithaa's swearing. In 2001, as Chennai mayor, he along with a few DMK leaders attended the function.
It may be noted, unlike in neighbouring states the two main rivals – AIADMK and DMK – don't see eye to eye. In fact, DMK's chief did not attend the assembly sessions when the other is in power. Interestingly, Karunanidhi greeted Pinarayi Vijayan (elected as CM in Kerala), Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal) and Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam) but not Jayalalithaa.
This time, DMK has emerged as the strong opposition in the assembly as it won 89 seats, along with eight seats won by its ally Congress.
AIADMK general secretary and her 28 Cabinet colleagues were sworn in by Governor K Rosaiah on Monday at the Madras University’s Centenary Hall. The list included 13 new faces and four women MLAs. S Semmalai has been named as pro-tem Speaker.
VIPs who have attended the event include Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Nirmala Seetharaman. Jayalalithaa has invited Prime Minister for the ceremony.
Also Read
Since the Prime Minister is on a visit to Iran, Naidu had been assigned to represent the Centre. Union Minister from Tamil Nadu Pon Radhakrishnan also attended the function.
Jayalalithaa will hold the portfolios of Public, Police, General Administration and Home, while her trusted aide O Panneerselvam will be the Finance Minister, Edappadi K.
Palanisamy will handle PWD and others include Sellur K. Raju, will continue to hold Cooperation and Labour. The other members who were also part of the previous Cabinet are R. Kamaraj (Food), C. Vijaya Baskar (Health), R.B. Udhaya Kumar (Revenue), P. Thangamani (Electricity and Prohibition), S P Velumani ( Municipal Administration and Rural Development), D Jayakumar (Fisheries), S.P. Shanmuganathan (Milk and Dairy Development), M.C. Sampath (Industries), C.Ve. Shanmugam ( Law, Courts and Prisons) and K P Anbazhagan (Higher Education), K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji (Rural Industries), K.C. Veeramani - Commercial Taxes
The new faces in Jayalalithaa's cabinet include V Saroja (Social Welfare), Udumalai Radhakrishnan (Housing and Urban Development), R Duraikannu (Agriculture and Animal Husbandry), P Benjamin (School Education), Vellamandi Natarajan (Tourism), V M Rajalakshmi (Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare), S. Valarmathi (Backward Classes and Minority Welfare), Manikandan (IT), M R Vijayabhaskar (Transport), K C Karupannan (Environment), O S Manian (Handlooms and Textiles), Kadambur Raju (Information and Publicity) and Dindigul C Srinivasan (Forest).
- After assuming the Chief Minister's Office for the sixth time, the first two files Jayalalithaa signed were free electricity till 100 units, which will benefit 78 lakh consumers in the state; the other file related to prohibition.
On the Agenda
- After assuming the Chief Minister's Office for the sixth time, the first two files Jayalalithaa signed were free electricity till 100 units, which will benefit 78 lakh consumers in the state; the other file related to prohibition.
- AIADMK in its manifesto promised bunch of benefits including free 100 units of power and prohibition in phase manner.
- The party promised 100 units electricity free every two months, which would cost around Rs 1,600-1,700 crore a year. The state’s power distribution company is ailing and receives a subsidy of Rs 2,560 crore from the government.
- AIADMK also promised that it would implement prohibition step by step. Total revenue to the state from the liquor sales is around Rs 33,000 crore.
- The other promises made by AIADMK in its manifesto includes waiver of all farm loans and famers loans to be paid. Cooperative banks will completely waive off and Rs 40,000 crore farm loans over next five years. The state government will also reimburse education loan.
- Flow of overall crop loans in Tamil Nadu is estimated at about Rs 69,000 crore out of which the cooperative sector was estimated to disburse around Rs 5,500 crore, which is about 8% of the crop loans. Education loan estimated to be around Rs 17,000 crore.
- To establish Lok Ayuktha; the stategovernment employees salary to be revised as per 7th Pay Commission. Cost to implement pay commission recommendation estimated at around Rs 15,000 crore
- Free mobiles, set-top-boxes, free Laptops with internet for 10th and 12th std students and 50 % subsidy for working women to buy mopeds and scooters
- Industry experts estimates over Rs 1,500 crore a year for two-wheeler alone and another around Rs 3,000 crore for other schemes.
- After results were announced last week, Jayalalithaa said “I will show my gratitude to the people of Tamil Nadu with renewed vigour and fulfilling the poll promises made by the party.”
| Seat Composition in Tamil Nadu Assembly | ||
| Year | Ruling party | Opposition |
| 1952 | 162 (Congress) | 62 (CPI) |
| 1957 | 151 (Congress) | 15 (DMK) |
| 1962 | 139 (Congress) | 50 (DMK) |
| 1967 | 137 (DMK) | 51 (Congress) |
| 1971 | 184 (DMK) | 15 (Congress) |
| 1977 | 130 (AIADMK) | 48 (DMK) |
| 1980 | 129 (AIADMK) | 37 (DMK) |
| 1984 | 132 (AIADMK) | 61 (Congress) |
| 1989 | 150 (DMK) | 27 (AIADMK) |
| 1991 | 164 (AIADMK) | 60 (Congress) |
| 1996 | 173 (DMK) | 39 (TMC) |
| 2001 | 132 (AIADMK) | 31 (DMK) |
| 2006 | 96 (DMK) | 61 (AIADMK) |
| 2011 | 150 (AIADMK) | 29 (DMDK) |
| 2016 | 134 (AIADMK) | 89 (DMK) |