By Kavita Mistry 
Chennai: With Tamil Nadu headed for assembly elections next year, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has rejigged his cabinet, keeping political considerations in mind. Following the resignation of K. Ponmudi and V. Senthil Balaji as ministers Sunday, Stalin Monday reinducted former minister Mano Thangaraj from the Christian Nadar community, increasing the count of Nadars in the cabinet to four.
Thangaraj is the ruling party’s MLA from Padmanabhapuram and, according to government sources, is likely to be given the milk and dairy development ministry that he held between 2023 and 2024.
The Nadar community is dominant in the southern districts, a region where the ruling DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Opposition AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) are fighting to widen their support base. The region has previously been a stronghold of the AIADMK.
The incumbent cabinet has three ministers from the backward Nadar community, as well as the assembly speaker.
The milk and dairy development ministry is currently held by R.S. Raja Kannappan, who is likely to be allotted the forest and khadi departments that were held by Ponmudi. Raja Kannappan hails from the backward Tamil Yadavar community—another group dominant in the southern districts.
The Tamil Nadu cabinet reshuffle had been necessitated after Balaji and Ponmudi resigned in the wake of adverse comments made by courts against them this month. Balaji held the electricity, prohibition and excise departments. Ponmudi and Balaji have been facing allegations of graft, while four other DMK ministers face charges of having disproportionate assets.
Government sources said that state transport minister S.S. Sivasankar, from the Vanniyar community, is likely to be given the additional charge of electricity, while minister for housing and urban development S. Muthusamy, from Kongu Vellalar community, is to be given prohibition and excise as an additional department.
The swearing-in ceremony of the new ministers will take place Monday evening at Raj Bhavan.
According to political analysts, the reinduction of Thangaraj, from southern Kanyakumari district, and reshuffle of prominent departments to Raja Kannappan ahead of the election points to the DMK’s desperation to retain its southern support base won over in the previous state election.
Political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy told ThePrint that DMK leader Stalin’s move was meant to appease voters in the southern districts in the wake of the AIADMK making efforts to win back its lost fort in Tamil Nadu’s south.
“The 10.5% (internal) reservation (among the Most Backward Classes) for the Vanniyars (given by the AIADMK and later struck down by court), and breakaway of TTV Dhinakaran from the AIADMK had cost the party dearly in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu. Thus, its performance in the 2021 assembly election and 2024 Lok Sabha election was poor in the southern region,” he explained.
“But now, they are slowly regaining their lost support as they have formed a strong alliance, which includes Dhinakaran. Hence, the DMK is also giving prominence to leaders in the southern district,” he added.
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Fight for southern Tamil Nadu
According to political analysts, the southern districts of Tamil Nadu have favoured AIADMK since the 1970s, and this support increased in the late 1990s.
Raveendran said the support of Thevars (an Other Backward Class community dominant in the southern districts) dwindled after the demise of AIADMK supremo and former CM J. Jayalalithaa in 2016, and was gained by the DMK in the 2021 election. Out of 60 seats contested in the southern districts, the AIADMK that year managed to win only 16.
Raveendran asserted that the DMK’s move to bring in a Nadar community member (Thangaraj) into the cabinet, and give prominent departments to another minister from the southern parts (Raja Kannappan) was meant to consolidate its support base.
“AIADMK’s Thevar vote bank is now split into multiple parties and the only way to gain majority in the state is with the help of other communities in the region. The move to give additional importance to Nadar and Yadavar will help the DMK ahead of the 2026 polls,” he told ThePrint.
According to political analyst Arun, it all started with former CM M.G. Ramachandran, who had first made Thevar Jayanthi a government-sponsored event in 1979. He was the first CM to participate in the event, largely celebrated by the people of the Thevar community.
“Although electoral politics is based on caste calculations, M.G.R.’s move to celebrate Thevar Jayanthi as a government-sponsored event got him more support from the community. Subsequently, the support increased in the late 1990s, after the DMK government took some serious action against caste violence in the southern districts,” Arun told ThePrint.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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