29-member Council of Ministers headed by Jaya to be sworn in on May 23

There are 13 new faces in the cabinet and few of them are senior functionaries in the party and served as MPs in the past.

Jayalalithaa arrives at Raj Bhavan to meet Governor (R Satish Babu | EPS)

CHENNAI: A 29-member Council of Ministers headed by J Jayalalithaa will be sworn in on May 23 at 12 noon at a grand ceremony to be held at Madras University Auditorium. 

Governor K Rosaiah will administer the oath of office to the new Ministers. Meanwhile, senior member of the House, S Semmalai has been appointed as the pro-tem Speaker of the newly constituted 15th Assembly. He will be sworn in by the Governor on May 23 at 1.30 p.m.,

In the new Cabinet, there are 13 new faces and few of them are senior functionaries in the party and served as MPs in the past. Jayalalithaa has retained 12 Ministers who were part of her last Cabinet and gave opportunity for five old Ministers including former Assembly Speaker D Jayakumar.

While Jayalalithaa has retained Police, Home, Public, IAS, IPS, IFS Services and General Administration, she has given old portfolios to certain Ministers and changed portfolios for some others. 

The portfolios allotted to the Ministers who were part of the last Cabinet are as follows:

• O Panneerselvam (Finance)
• Edappadi K Palaniswami (Public Works)
• Sellur K Raju (Cooperation and Labour)
• P Thangamani (Electricity)
• SP Velumani (Municipal Admn)
• MC Sampath (Industries)
• R Kamaraj (Food & HR & CE)
• C Vijaya Baskar (Health)
• SP Shanmuganathan (Dairy Development)
• RB Udayakumar (Revenue)
• KT Rajenthra Bhalaji (Rural Industries)
• KC Veeramani (Commercial Taxes)

Besides, C Ve Shanmugam, a former Minister has been given Law portfolio and former Assembly Speaker D Jayakumar has been made Fisheries Ministers. KP Anbazhagan, another former Minister has been given Higher Education portfolio.

The new faces to the Cabinet and their portfolios are:

• Dindigul C Srinivasan (Forests)
• Dr V Saroja (Social Welfare)
• KC Karuppannan (Environment)
• OS Manian (Handloom and Textiles)
• Udumalai K Radhakrishnan (Housing)
• R Duraikannu (Agriculture and Animal Husbandry)
• Kadambur Raju (Information)
• P Benjamin, former Deputy Mayor of Chennai Corporation (School Education)
• Vellamandi N Natarajan (Tourism)
• S Valarmathi (Bakcward Classes and Minorties Welfare)
• VM Rajalakshmi (Adi Dravida and Tribal Welfare)
• Dr M Manikandan (Information Technology)
• MR Vijayabaskar (Transport)