CHENNAI: Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), which swept to power on the promise of ‘social justice’, among others, took a historic first step in making that a reality by appointing a record seven SC ministers to the cabinet.
This marks the highest representation the SC community has ever received in Tamil Nadu’s political history. The number is expected to rise to eight once the VCK joins the ministry.
The new cabinet also includes four woman ministers and two ministers from the Brahmin community, marking a departure from the political formulae that typically dictate ministry formation in TN. The previous DMK government had four SC ministers.
The new cabinet also reflects the social composition of the legislators of the ruling alliance, with TVK having 23 SC MLAs. While the TVK emerged victorious in 24 of the 44 reserved seats in the recent polls, including one ST seat, five of the 13 MLAs from other parties that supported TVK are also from the SC community.
Kongu region gets nine ministers in Vijay’s team
Three new woman ministers, Kamali S, C Vijayalakshmi, and Jegadeshwari K, were also inducted on Thursday. With S Keerthana already in the cabinet, the number of woman ministers has gone up to four. In 2016, there were four woman ministers in the then CM J Jayalalithaa’s cabinet. The Kongu region has been given nine ministers. Though complaints were doing the rounds on social media about Vijay not given representation to 19 districts in the ministry, it is also being argued that no ministry had ever given representation to all districts.
