Chennai: After months of speculation, Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, has been elevated to the post of deputy chief minister in a reshuffle that also saw the induction of four MLAs into the cabinet—including former electricity minister Senthil Balaji, who was released on bail by the Supreme Court on 26 September.
A press communiqué from Raj Bhavan Saturday night announced that the governor had approved the recommendations to designate Udhayanidhi as deputy CM and to allot him the Department of Planning and Development in addition to his existing portfolio, the Department of Youth Welfare and Sports Development. The governor had also approved the recommendations to induct Senthil Balaji, Dr Govi Chezhiaan, R. Rajendran, and S.M. Nasar into the cabinet.
The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for 3.30pm Sunday at the Raj Bhavan.
The developments confirmed weeks-long twin speculations over Udhayanidhi’s elevation and a cabinet reshuffle. Sources in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) told ThePrint that the move was part of the party’s larger plan to face the 2026 Tamil Nadu assembly elections.
“People were not randomly removed and added. It was a consciously made decision to prepare the grounds for the 2026 assembly election,” said a senior leader in the DMK.
In that light, the re-induction of Balaji, who had been arrested in a connection with a money laundering case, to the cabinet is significant because he has a support base in the western region of Tamil Nadu. Balaji is an influential leader of the Gounder community of the region.
It also underscores the aspirations of the ruling DMK to make inroads in the region, where the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) had won most of the seats in the 2021 assembly elections.
Additionally, Chezhiaan’s addition will make it the first time in the history of the Tamil Nadu Assembly that the state cabinet has four Dalit ministers.
He will join M .Mathiventhan from the Arunthathiyar community; N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, who is from the Devendra Kula Vellalar community, and C.V. Ganesan of the Adi Dravidar community.
Senior DMK leaders said there was no friction within the party over Udhayanidhi’s elevation because the portfolios of the senior ministers were not disturbed.
“There is no visible friction, but a few of the senior ministers were scared that their portfolios might be disturbed. When they were assured that their portfolios would not be disturbed, they were convinced,” a senior party leader said.
Instead, Stalin gave one of his own portfolios, planning and urban development, to Udhayanidhi—something party members see as a move to appease senior leaders.
“With all important departments being held by senior ministers, if a portfolio is taken from a senior, it might give the impression that Udhayanidhi is surpassing his senior cabinet colleagues. That’s the only reason the CM allocated his own department to Udhayanidhi,” a state cabinet minister told ThePrint.
The announcement followed a number of ministers, including Geeta Jeevan and Raja Kannappan, making public appeals to the chief minister asking for Udhayanidhi to be made deputy CM.
Cabinet shuffle sheds light on DMK plan for 2026
Party sources said that while the plan to elevate Udhayanidhi was put together as early as January, it was kept in abeyance for various reasons, including the murder of the Bahujan Samaj Party leader K. Armstrong and Balaji’s pending bail petition. The move was made in a bid to make him the face of the party for the assembly elections.
With actor-turned-politician actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and the Naam Thamizhar Katchi set to contest the elections independently, and with the BJP and AIADMK not in the mood to join hands anytime soon, five fronts will likely be in the fray in 2026.
“In a likely five-cornered fight in 2026, we needed a young leader equal to the BJP’s K. Annamalai and TVK’s Vijay. The move is aimed at the 2026 elections,” the minister quoted above said.
Udhayanidhi is already part of the committee formed to coordinate the elections and, even though senior ministers, including K.N. Nehru, Thangam Thennarasu and E.V. Velu, are also in the committee, it is Udhayanidhi who is convening the meetings and informing Stalin of the developments.
Balaji’s reappointment had also been made keeping the elections in mind.
In 2021, though the DMK’s alliance, which included the Congress and the VCK, won in 159 seats with the DMK alone securing 133 seats—an absolute majority—it could not win a single seat in Coimbatore district in the western region of the state. The AIADMK won in nine seats in the district and the BJP in one.
However, after Balaji was put in charge of Coimbatore and surrounding districts in January 2022, he ensured the party’s victory in the village as well as urban local body polls, including for the mayor’s post in the Coimbatore city municipal corporation.
According to sources in the party, he is likely to be appointed electricity minister—the post he held last.
The appointment of Govi Chezhiaan, an MLA from the reserved Thiruvidamarudur Assembly constituency, to the cabinet assumes significance because the DMK has been criticised as a party for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). According to sources in the DMK, he is likely to be allocated the Department of Higher Education, which would make him the only minister from the southeastern Thanjavur district.
The appointment of R. Rajendran, the MLA from Salem North, has been made to counter the influence of the AIADMK in the Salem district—the native district of former chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
Rajendran was first elected as an MLA from the district in 2006. Though he lost the 2011 elections, he won the assembly elections in 2016 and 2021.
Portfolios to be announced soon
Though no official announcement has been made on the portfolios for the ministers, sources close to the top leadership confirmed that the allocationns would be made with an eye on wooing the voters.
Nasar will be made minister of minorities welfare, non-resident Tamils’ welfare, refugees and evacuees and the wakf board, a party source confirmed.
K. Ponmudy, who currently holds the higher education portfolio, will be reassigned to the forest department, while Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu will also be allocated the environment and climate change department, party sources added. Adi Dravidar Welfare Minister N. Kayalvizhi Selvaraj will be allocated with the Department of Human Resources Management.
The full list of the portfolios recommended by the state government will be released after the deputy chief minister and other cabinet colleagues take oath Sunday.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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