Udhayanidhi to be sworn in as minister on Dec 14

CHENNAI: DMK youth wing secretary cum Chepauk-Triplicane MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin will likely be inducted into the state cabinet on December 14. Stalin junior is expected to be allotted youth and sports welfare and special programme implementation portfolios.

Chief Minister M K Stalin currently holds the special programme implementation department.

Siva V Meiyanathan, who holds youth and sports welfare portfolio will be divested of the responsibility and allowed to retain environment and climate change departments.

Meanwhile, a swanky new room was being readied on Monday for the influential Chepauk MLA at the state secretariat on Monday, where the mood is abuzz for the coronation of Stalin junior.

Udhayanidhi would be the lone newcomer when the cabinet reshuffle happens on Wednesday as the DMK leadership is understood to have no plans to swear in any more new faces into the cabinet.

Minister Udhay will shine bright: Velu

Though the government has yet to officially confirm Udhayanidhi's ministerial rise, which is touted to be set for 9.30am on Wednesday, state PWD minister E V Velu vouched for his likely cabinet colleague and said that Udhayanidhi would shine bright as a minister.

Sulking IP to get rural development portfolio

In information trickling out of the DMK corridors of power were something to go by, a minor cabinet reshuffle is also on the cards. A portfolio swap is expected between cooperation minister I Periasamy and rural development minister K R Periyakaruppan. Similar portfolio exchange between incumbent forest minister K Ramachandran and tourism minister M Mathiventhan is also rumoured on the DMK corridors of power. A sulking incumbent state minister of cooperation I Periyasamy, who has been complaining over the portfolio allocated to him since the return of the party to power in May 2021, was said to have also eyed the revenue portfolio, which he had held in the previous 2006-11 DMK regime, and currently held by KKSSR Ramachandran.