A day after he presented a list of 124 AIADMK MLAs supporting him to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, a 31-member ministerial team led by ‘Edappadi’ K Palanisamy was sworn in to office.
That was one more than what late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had in her team. Governor Rao’s decision to delay the process of government formation ever since party general secretary V K Sasikala staked her claim as the new chief minister through a letter on February 5 and in person on February 7 was hotly debated. A surprise revolt by incumbent chief minister O Panneerselvam added spice to the whole drama.
Once the Supreme Court convicted Sasikala in an assets case, which pencilled her out of the race, the Governor acted quickly enough to install her choice, Palanisamy, as the new chief minister. In doing so he went by convention of giving the opportunity to whoever has the numbers on his side.
The 15 days he gave the Gounder strongman to take the trust vote is also reasonable, though it appears the chief minister would want to take the fl oor test much earlier, since he is confi - dent about his strength. Though there was some buzz about the possibility of patch up with the rebel group, for the record they said they still stood by OPS.
The other possibility of course is reverse defection—from OPS to the ruling dispensation. The new chief minister is known to be an able administrator and a tough taskmaster. He now has the task of taking all sections of the society along.
Since the fi gure of 124 MLAs on his side is pretty close to the simple majority mark of 118, Palanisamy cannot take afford to take any political risks for now. He needs to keep his team well represented and power evenly shared. In the 11 days since the drama began, it was governance that had taken the biggest hit. It is now time to restore good governance.