Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 21: For the first time in about six decades, the Congress on Thursday became a part of the government in Tamil Nadu as two of its members took oath as ministers in the coalition government led by the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) under the chief minister C Joseph Vijay.
The oath-taking ceremony, in which 21 members of the TVK also were sworn-in, briefly sparked off a controversy as one of the Congress ministers after being administered the oath by the governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, suddenly indulged in sloganeering hailing the Congress leaders.
The governor took strong objections and sternly told the Congress member S Rajesh Kumar that his hailing the Congress leaders was not part of his oath. But the governor wore a smile as he turned towards Rajesh Kumar, and in response the Congress minister also smiled back ending the confrontation on the spot.
While reading out the oath text from the official paper, Kumar suddenly hailed Congress leaders Kamaraj, Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as he finished his oath. Video of the oath taking ceremony showed S Rajesh Kumar saying, “long live the name of Kamaraj” (late Congress veteran from Tamil Nadu), “long live Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi” (former Prime Minister), and long live people’s leader Rahul Gandhi.” The invocations of the Congress leaders drew a sharp and spontaneous reminder from the governor to the Congress leader. “That is not part of your oath,” the governor snapped back, but with a smile. S Rajesh Kumar also smiled back at being checked on his sloganeering and went to sign his oath document.
Mr Arlekar administered the oath of office and secrecy to the Ministers-designate at Lok Bhavan in Chennai in the presence of Mr Vijay. With the induction of Congress MLAs into the cabinet, the party has for the first time in 59 years joined the state government, though it was a part of the ruling alliance led by the DMK in the past.
With the swearing-in of 23 new ministers, the Vijay cabinet on Thursday expanded to 33 and is likely to be further expanded at least to 35 in a day or two as two more supporting parties of the TVK government, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), both members of the erstwhile Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) led by the DMK, have also agreed to join the cabinet.
The Cabinet expansion took place almost 10 days after Mr Vijay and nine other MLAs, all from TVK, were sworn-in, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on May 10. Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar, former Speaker P. Dhanapal, Ministers, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Tamil Nadu Girish Chodankar, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K. Selvaperunthagai, VCK president Thol. Thirumavalavan, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) State secretary P. Shanmugam, and Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary M. Veerapandian, were among those present at the oath-taking ceremony.
The Left bloc and the VCK agreed at the last minute to join the government declaring that they, the allies of DMK, had the blessing of party chief MK Stalin to join the government, and they were doing so only to keep the state from falling into the grip of the BJP via Governor’s Rule. This time, the VCK had kept the TVK guessing despite the party’s early invite to allies for government formation.
On Wednesday, the VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan had indicated that the party would deliberate on TVK’s invite. “We did not demand ministerial positions as a precondition for extending support. We offered unconditional support solely for government formation despite winning only two seats,” he had said. Even so, the party did not name any MLA due to which only 21 MLAs from TVK and two from Congress took oath on Thursday.
The IUML — which is already part of the UDF government in Kerala — did not name an MLA either despite accepting TVK’s offer on Wednesday. This morning, the party’s top leader KM Kader Mohideen made a formal announcement about joining the government and named its Papanasam MLA AM Shahjahan for inclusion in the Cabinet.
The cabinet now comprises 33 MLAs, two berths are vacant. Now with the IUML and VCK both stepping up, there appears no chance of any AIADMK rebel MLAs making it to the cabinet. The CPI and CPM have stood their ground on remaining out of power.
During the trust vote of Vijay on May 13, as many as 25 rebel AIADMK MLAs led by SP Velumani and CV Shanmugam had supported the government. Vijay’s meeting with the rebel faction ahead of the vote had caused some disquiet among his allies and the Left parties had said they would “reconsider” their support if the AIADMK MLAs were accommodated despite the negative public mandate.
The TVK had won 108 seats in the April 23 assembly polls and the Left parties, VCK and IUML — each with two seats — have extended support to the TVK in addition to Congress, which has five MLAs.
For the Congress, Thursday was a historic day. The Congress with five MLAs in the Tamil Nadu Assembly is a key component of the TVK government after Vijay-led party fell short of majority in the results. Congress was the first to announce support for the TVK snapping ties with longstanding ally DMK. Although Congress was a DMK ally for 20 years, it was never a part of the DMK ministries in the state.
In a first in nearly six decades, Congress finds itself at a sweet spot in Tamil Nadu with two of its MLAs — S Rajesh Kumar and P Viswanathan — as part of the current cabinet. Both the Congress leaders got key portfolios in the newly sworn-in cabinet. S Rajesh Kumar got tourism portfolio and his party colleague P Viswanathan higher education. After the oath ceremony, Congress’ P Viswanathan said the party would “extend its complete support to every scheme and initiative undertaken by CM Vijay.”