Tamil Nadu: Jaya reshuffles cabinet, replaces three ministers

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today sacked three ministers and inducted as many besides rejigging the portfolios of some others. She dropped Agriculture Minister S Damodaran, Labour Minister KT Pachamal and Revenue Minister BV Ramanaa from her council of ministers, a Raj Bhavan communique said. Jayalalithaa, who is also the General Seceretary of ruling AIADMK, sacked six party functionaries, including Ramana, from party posts. [caption id=“attachment_1532593” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa. AFP[/caption] While four leaders were sacked from party posts in Tamil Nadu, two were shown the door in neighbouring Puducherry. In yet another reshuffle of the ministry after she assumed office in 2011, she re-inducted Agri SS Krishnamoorthy, SP Velumani and Gokula Indira, dropped on earlier occasions, into the ministry and they would be sworn-in tomorrow at Raj Bhavan. Jayalalithaa also effected changes in the portfolios of some ministers, allocated Revenue Department to RB Udayakumar who hitherto held Youth Welfare and Sports Development. KP Munuswamy, who now holds Municipal Administration and Rural Develoopment, has been given Labour Ministry. S Sundararaj will be the new Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare. He now holds Handlooms and Textiles departments. The Chief Minister allocated Agriculuture porfolio to Agri Krishnamoorthy, Municipal Administration to Velumani and Handloom and Textile Ministry to Indira. Krishnamoorthy, Velumani and Indira, who had been sacked from the ministry during earlier reshuffle, have staged a come back. According to sources, Pachamal earned the wrath of the Chief Minister for AIADMK’s defeat in Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat against BJP. Pachamal represents Kanyakumari assembly segment. Ramanaa was earlier in the day removed as Tiruvallur North District Secretary even as the party scored victory by a huge margin in the constituency. The reason why Ramana faced the action could not be ascertained immediately. The other party functionaries sacked from party posts include A Sivaselvarajan (Kanyakumar East) and D John Thangam (Kanyakumari West) who had unsuccessfully contested Kanyakumari seat, KP Anbhazagan, MLA, (Dharmapuri) and A Anbazhagan, MLA, (Puducherry) and Jayalalithaa Peravai Secretary, Om Shakthi Sekar, MLA (Punducherry). Sources said KP Anbhazagan, who represents Dharmapuri assembly segment, had to pay the price for the defeat of AIADMK candidate by PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss. In Puducherry, the lone Lok Sabha seat was won by ruling AINRC headed by Chief Minister N Ranagaswamy. PTI