Chennai: AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa will be sworn-in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time today, within less than a fortnight of the Karnataka High Court upholding her appeal and acquitting her in a corruption case.
Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah's office, in a statement, said the Governor has approved the recommendation made by CM-designate Jayalalithaa regarding allocation of portfolios among the Council of Ministers.
The swearing-in ceremony would be held at 11 am at the Madras University Centenary Building. A total of 29 ministers, including 67-year-old Jayalalithaa, would be sworn-in.
Coming out of her home after more than seven months on Friday, Jayalalithaa called on Rosaiah and exchanged pleasantries.
She also handed over the list of ministers to be sworn in, party officials said.
Jayalalithaa, while dropping MSM Anand, minister for forests and P Chendur Pandian (without any portfolio), retained all other ministers in the outgoing O Panneerselvam government, without changing their portfolios.
She would look after public, IAS, IPS and IFS, Home, general administration, district revenue departments, while Panneerselvam will continue to hold the finance and public works portfolio.
Yesterday, Rosaiah accepted the resignation of CM Panneerselvam and his Council of Ministers and invited Jayalalithaa to form a new ministry at the earliest.
Jayalalithaa had to relinquish the post of Chief Minister and her Srirangam assembly seat after she was convicted and given a four-year jail term along with Rs 100 crore fine by a trial court in Bengaluru in the disproportionate assets case.
On Friday morning, AIADMK MLAs elected Jayalalithaa as leader of the legislature party. Panneerselvam proposed Jayalalithaa's name amid enthusiastic clapping by all the law makers.
It is expected that Jayalalithaa would contest for re-election from the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly constituency since on May 17, P Vetrivel, a party legislator representing the constituency, resigned from his post and the same was accepted by the Speaker.
With Vetrivel's resignation, the AIADMK's strength in the 234-member assembly comes down by one to 150, excluding the Speaker.
A close aide of AIADMK founder-leader MGR, Jayalalithaa became the party's propaganda secretary in the early 1980s. In 1984, she entered the Rajya Sabha.
Jayalalithaa was elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly for the first time in 1989.
Two years later, she became the Chief Minister, sweeping the election held after the 1991 assassination of former PM Rajiv Gandhi.
Her party was voted out in 1996 amid corruption charges, but she returned to power in 2001.
Jayalalithaa again led the AIADMK to a thumping victory in 2011. This time, she announced a string of populist measures that have proved to be hugely popular in Tamil Nadu.
Jayalalithaa studied in Bengaluru and Chennai, and ventured into acting. She made her debut at the age of 16 in a Kannada movie, and went on to act in over 140 films.
