Former Guv Tamilisai Soundararajan slams Stalin for elevating son Udhaynidhi as Deputy CM 

Chennai, Sep 29 (IANS) Tamil Nadu BJP leader and former Governor of Telangana, Tamilisai Soundararajan, has slammed Chief Minister M.K. Stalin for elevating his son as Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

Tamilisai, the former president of the Tamil Nadu BJP, asked Stalin whether he was a democratically elected government or a dynastic monarchy.

Speaking to reporters here on Sunday, she asked, “Is this a monarchy or a democratically elected government? People of the state need an explanation. ”

She also asked the Chief Minister the reason for dropping three ministers from his cabinet and said that a senior leader like K. Ponmudi was sent to ‘Vanavas’. The BJP leader was referring to the removal of Ponmudi from the high profile ministry of Higher Education to the relatively minor Forest department.

Tamilisai Soundararajan also asked why the Chief Minister was in a hurry to re-induct Senthil Balaji into the cabinet immediately after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court.

She said, “The ruling DMK is not bothered about corruption. Stalin-led state government is setting a wrong precedence by re-inducting Senthil Balaji into the cabinet as well as promoting dynastic monarchy over democracy by elevating the Chief Minister’s son as the Deputy Chief Minister.”

The BJP leader said that the DMK has not included a new woman minister in the reshuffle and added that DMK which has been vouching for women empowerment was in fact not practising what it was preaching.

Earlier on Saturday night, Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan had issued a communique about the elevation of Udhayanidhi Stalin as the Deputy Chief Minister and the swearing-in of four new ministers.

Three ministers, Tourism Minister K. Ramachandran, Diary Minister Mano Thangaraj and Minority Affairs Minister Gingee K. Masthan were dropped from the Stalin cabinet. Four new ministers will assume office after swearing in at 3.30 pm on Sunday. The new ministers are R. Rajendran who will be allocated the Tourism portfolio, S.M. Nasser who will be looking after Minority Affairs and Senthil Balaji who will be in charge of Electricity.

Dalit leader Govi Chezhiyan, who is currently the whip of the DMK in the state Assembly, will assume office as the Higher Education Minister instead of veteran leader, K. Ponmudi who has been assigned the relatively low profile Forest portfolio.