Seven MLAs from Chennai find place in Tamil Nadu cabinet: highest in recent years

The State capital has had one of its strongest representations in the Tamil Nadu Council of Ministers in recent years, with seven of the 33 Ministers sworn in to the new Cabinet on Thursday winning from Chennai constituencies.

This includes Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president C. Joseph Vijay, MLA from Perambur who holds the portfolio of Municipal Administration, Urban and Water Supply, among other key sectors. The city’s contribution to the current cabinet is among the highest ever as many of TVK’s top leaders have decided to contest from Chennai and the leaders have become ministers.

TVK general secretary and T. Nagar MLA N. Anand is the Minister of Rural Development and Water Resources. TVK general secretary (election campaign management) and Villivakkam MLA Aadhav Arjuna is the Minister of Public Works and Sports Development. Similarly, Egmore (SC) MLA Rajmohan is the Minister for School Education, Tamil Development, Information and Publicity and Mylapore MLA P. Venkataramanan is the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies.

Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar MLA N. Marie Wilson holds the Finance, Planning and Development portfolios while Velachery legislator R. Kumar has been appointed to the Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology and Digital Services portfolio.

past years

The current allocation marks a significant increase in Chennai’s representation compared to previous administrations.

In the 2021 DMK Cabinet headed by former Chief Minister MK Stalin representing Kolathur, only three MLAs from the city were present, including PK Sekarbabu (Port) and Ma. Subramanian (Saidapet). Later, Udhayanidhi Stalin was sworn in as the Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Development in December 2022.

Before this, the 2016 AIADMK Cabinet included only two Ministers from Chennai, including former CM J. Jayalalithaa (Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar) and D. Jayakumar (Royapuram). Similarly, the 2011 AIADMK government included only two city representatives: G. Senthamizhan (Saidapet) and Gokula Indira (Anna Nagar).