Udhayanidhi elevated as deputy CM, Senthil Balaji makes a comeback in TN cabinet reshuffle

DMK leader Senthil Balaji, who recently got bail, will also be re-inducted as a minister.

Chennai: Awarding yet another promotion to his son, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday designated and Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin as his deputy in the government, even as he undertook a reshuffle of his Cabinet by dropping three ministers and inducting V Senthil Balaji, who is out on bail, and three other new faces.

The 46-year-old Udhay, who made his political debut only five years ago when he campaigned for DMK candidates in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, has been allotted Planning and Development in addition to Youth Welfare and Sports Development portfolios held by him since 2022.

A press communique from the Raj Bhavan said Udhay has been designated as the deputy chief minister, a post held by Stalin between 2009 and 2011 in his late father M Karunanidhi’s government. This is Udhayanidhi’s fourth promotion in the party in the last five years – he was named as the youth wing secretary in 2019, elected as a MLA in 2021, inducted into Cabinet in 2022, and now elevated as the deputy chief minister.

A significant inclusion into the cabinet is Balaji, who was released on bail only on September 26 after spending 15 months in jail in a money laundering case, along with S M Nasar, Dr Govi Chezhiaan, and R Rajendran.

Balaji’s induction into the Cabinet – his arrest in 2023 had created a storm between the Governor and Government – shows the importance that Stalin attaches to him. The CM believes Balaji is critically important in the DMK’s plans to make inroads into the western region, where the AIADMK-BJP alliance won the majority of seats in the 2021 assembly polls.

Dairy Development Minister Mano Thangaraj, Minorities Welfare Minister K S Masthan, and Tourism Minister K Ramachandran were dropped from the Cabinet. While Nasar makes a comeback into the Cabinet 16 months after he was dropped, portfolios for the new comers are yet to be announced.

In the reshuffle, Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy has been shifted to Forests, Siva V Meyyanathan from Environment and Climate Change to Backward Classes, Adi Dravidar Welfare Minister N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj to Human Resources Management, and Forests Minister M Mathiventhan to Adi Dravidar Welfare.  

R S Rajakannappan moves from Backward Classes Welfare to Dairy Development, while Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu gets Environment and Climate Change as an additional portfolio. 

The promotion for Udhay was long expected and it was deferred in January this year due to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as the DMK didn’t want to attract the criticism of “dynastic politics” just months before a crucial poll.

DH had on July 18 reported that Stalin was toying with the idea of elevating his son as deputy chief minister along with a minor reshuffle of portfolios among his Cabinet colleagues. 

Udhay’s elevation will be a smooth affair as not even a whimper of protest was heard when he was inducted into the Cabinet within 19 months of his making a debut in the Tamil Nadu assembly as a legislator. In fact, there was a clamour among ministers to pitch Udhay for deputy CM in the past couple of months. 

Notwithstanding the promotion, Udhay was virtually No. 2 in the DMK government as he stepped in to inaugurate programs and launch schemes of various departments whenever his father was not able to do so due to his health. He is also the most sought after minister to inaugurate schemes in their departments. 

Udhay’s rise in the DMK has been meteoric even for a member of the first family and is in complete contrast with his father Stalin, who climbed the party ladder gradually over the decades. Udhay’s first political outing was in 2018, a year after his grandfather M Karunanidhi was confined to his home, and the next year he was appointed as secretary of the youth wing. 

In 2021, Udhay contested the assembly elections from Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni, a constituency in Chennai represented by his grandfather, and won by a massive margin. And in 2022, he was a minister in his father’s 1.5 years old government. 

In contrast, Stalin, who was groomed by Karunanidhi to succeed him, had to wait for at least 15 years to join his father’s cabinet. Stalin was inducted as a minister only in 2006, in his fourth term as a legislator and patiently waited for Karunanidhi to hand over the reins to him.