M K Stalin sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, the DMK president who led his party to a huge victory in the Assembly polls was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Friday.

Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 68-year old Stalin, for whom this would be the first stint as CM, in a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan here.

A total of 33 ministers were also sworn in following Stalin, of whom 15 are first-time ministers. All the 34, including Stalin took the oath as per their conscience and in Tamil, in sync with the decades old tradition of the DMK.

Earlier, Stalin, clad in a white shirt and dhoti introduced his Cabinet to Purohit.

DMK veteran and general secretary Duraimurugan, who had held portfolios like Public Works during the previous DMK rule (2006-11) was administered oath after Stalin and is designated as Water Resources Minister in charge of irrigation projects and has portfolios of mines and minerals.

Home and other portfolios including public, general administration, all India services, district revenue officers, special programme implementation and welfare of differently abled persons are with Chief Minister Stalin.

Palanivel Thiagarajan, a former investment banker, is Minister for Finance and Human Resources Management.

Veteran KKSSR Ramachandran is the Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management. Noted party leader from here and former Chennai Mayor, Ma Subramanian is Minister for Health, Family Welfare. K Ponmudi is Minister for Higher Education, Thangam Thnnaarasu Minister for Industries and P K Sekarbabu is Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department.

V Senthil Balaji, who was transport minister between 2011 and 2015 during the previous AIADMK government headed by J Jayalalithaa and who joined the DMK in 2018, is Minister for electricity.

Certain departments including agriculture and environment have been renamed. Accordingly, agriculture department is now Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Environment is Department of Environment and Climate Change.

MRK Panneerselvam is the Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. E V Velu is Minister for Public Works.

The Welfare of Non Resident Tamils (WoNRT) is a new portfolio with Gingee K S Masthan, who is designated as Minister for Minorities Welfare and WoNRT.

Stalin's family members including his wife Durga and son Udhayanidhi Stalin, who won from Triplicane-Chepauk constituency here, took part in the event.

When Stalin took the oath, beginning with words "I Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin," his wife's eyes welled up in joy.

The DMK chief's elder brother, M K Alagiri's son Dayanidhi and former union minister Dayanidhi Maran were present.

The cabinet has two women ministers, P Geetha Jeevan, a former minister, who has been given social welfare and women empowerment and N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj who has been designated Minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare.

Selvaraj, who is a first time minister, had trounced BJP Tamil Nadu unit chief L Murugan from Dharapuram constituency.

AIADMK top leader O Panneerselvam, leaders from alliance parties including Congress's P Chidambaram, MDMK chief Vaiko and top state officials took part in the ceremony.

The ceremony, which went on for about an hour and 10 minutes witnessed adherence to COVID-19 guidelines including wearing masks.

Later, when Stalin paid floral tributes to a portrait of his father and late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi at the residence of the late leader here, he turned emotional and he took the blessings of his mother Dayalu Ammal.

Stalin's family members including his sister Selvi were present when he visited the Gopalapuram house.