Reporter’s Diary: Friction between ministers turns fodder for Opposition

” It might easily be dismissed as comic relief but buried behind the one-liner is a rift in the State Cabinet. The rib-tickler from the Minister has kept some tongues wagging in AIADMK circles, where khadar veshtis refuse to believe that it was more than a joke. 

The buzz in AIADMK is that Vijaya Baskar had only vented his frustration at Velumani with whom he has not been sharing a great camaraderie for a while now. It appears Vijaya Baskar was only taunting his cabinet colleague who had ganged up against him when the gutkha scam loomed large over the incumbent AIADMK regime. Velumani along with minister Thangamani were rumoured to have persuaded Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to drop Vijaya Baskar from the Cabinet to control the damage caused by the scam, not minding the fact that the young Health Minister was too difficult a minister to be reprimanded in the incumbent regime. 

Understandably, Vijaya Baskar’s taunts did not go unnoticed. Velumani was learnt to have expressed his displeasure to friends in the party about the cabinet colleague publicly criticising his ministry, and that, too, in the presence of judges, instead of ironing out differences internally. 

Needless to say, the simmering discontent between two ‘resourceful’ subordinates has reached the Chief Minister’s Office, too. A few seniors in the party have already advised the two Ministers to make peace and not provide fodder tothe opposition.