CHENNAI/SALEM: The delta districts are dismayed as they have no representation in Chief Minister MK Stalin’s first cabinet, despite the DMK bagging many seats in the districts. The AIADMK-led alliance had bagged only three out of 18 constituencies in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai and Nagappattinam districts.
A DMK functionary told Express, “To my knowledge, in the last four decades, this is the first cabinet without ministers from the delta districts, despite it being the native district of former chief minister M Karunanidhi. I hope our districts will get a berth during the next cabinet rejig.”The Salem district, which hogged limelight with Edappadi K Palaniswami becoming the CM, too does not have representation in the cabinet. The DMK won one seat in the district during in the 2021 Assembly polls.
Speaking to Express, veteran journalist T Koodalarsan said, “Till the counting of votes, the people of Salem district could proudly say that the CM belonged to their district. Now, no ministerial berth has also been allocated to Salem. It should be corrected at the earliest. Otherwise, the disappointment among the people would affect the morale of the cadre there.”
Salem district has always featured prominently in State politics, especially in Dravidian politics. The Justice Party, which changed its name in 1944 as Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), held its conference in Salem under the leadership of Periyar EV Ramasamy. After DMK was founded in 1949 by CN Annadurai and the AIADMK founded by MG Ramachandran in 1972, people like K Rajaram, C Ponnaiyan, and later in 1989, Veerapandi S Arumugam from Salem were members in Karunanidhi, MG Ramachandran, J Jayalalithaa’s cabinets.
In 2017, after the demise of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, Edappadi K Palaniswami from Salem became the Chief Minister and Salem was crowned Chief Minister’s district. In this election which saw a tough fight between the DMK and the AIADMK in the district, AIADMK alliance won 10 seats out of 11 in the district.However, DMK retained Salem North and incumbent MLA Panamarathupatti R Rajendran was elected to power.
As Salem was Chief Minister’s district for the last four years, DMK cadre thought that Rajendran would be featured in MK Stalin’s cabinet as he is the only MLA for DMK in Salem. Unlike other DMK leaders he was considered as a soft face of DMK in Salem. It was amid tough fight that he won for the second consecutive time. But when his name did not feature in the list, Salem DMK cadre were upset.
On the condition of anonymity, senior DMK functionaries said that for the past four years due to former CM Edappadi K Palaniswami, Salem received importance and many welfare schemes were implemented in the district. Through that AIADMK gained a good reputation and after the 10.5 per cent reservation for Vanniyars, AIADMK grew stronger in Salem.
Even though many DMK leaders campaigned in Salem, DMK could not win big except in Salem North. Rajendran losing a ministerial berth in the cabinet has become a prestige issue for DMK as local body elections are approaching and the AIADMK alliance has 10 MLAs while DMK has no power in the cabinet.
On sensing disgruntlement among the cadre and general public in the Delta districts, on Friday, after assuming public office, Chief Minister MK Stalin tweeted that he took charge as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu with the words of I Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin belong to Thiruvarur district, located on the riverbank of Cauvery and thanked the people of Tamil Nadu for giving this opportunity to serve the mother land of Tamil Nadu.