Tamil Nadu CM C Joseph Vijay expands cabinet, 23 new ministers take oath in Chennai

CHENNAI: Chief minister C Joseph Vijay expanded his cabinet with another 23 ministers taking oath as ministers at a function held at Lok Bhavan in Chennai. In total, there are 33 ministers and two more ministries such as the ministry of Adi Dravidar and Tribal welfare and ministry of minorities welfare remain vacant. They are likely to be filled by VCK and IUML MLAs.

In the list of ministries, Chennai gets two more cabinet berths as R K Nagar MLA Marie Wilson became finance minister and Velachery MLA R Kumar became AI & IT minister. Surprisingly, a first time MLA Marie Wilson was made the finance minister replacing the experienced K A Sengottaiyan, who is now the revenue minister.



19 districts such as the Nilgiris, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Theni, Dindigul, Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirupathur, Ariyalur, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Perambalur, Tiruvarur, Dharmapuri, Karur, and Krishnagiri have no ministers. 16 of the ministers were long-time associates of Vijay.

This is also the first coalition cabinet formed in TN since independence as Congress MLAs S Rajesh Kumar and P Viswanathan get tourism and higher education.

This is the first time that there are seven Dalit ministers in the TN cabinet. There are four women ministers in the cabinet such as industries minister S Keerthana, animal husbandry minister S Kamali, milk and dairy development minister C Vijayalakshmi and women and social welfare and women empowerment minister K Jagadeeshwari.