Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao on Thursday appointed Edappadi K Palaniswami as chief minister. 

The Governor invited him to form the ministry at the earliest.

The governor requested the chief minister-designate to seek the vote confidence of the assembly within 15 days.

His appointment is in acceptance of the “letter of submitted by Palaniswami on Tuesday that he was elected as the leader of the AIADMK legislature party at a meeting of the party MLAs held on that day,” a Raj Bhavan press note said.

Rao conveyed his decision to Palaniswami when the latter visited Raj Bhavan at 11.30am, along with party presidium chairman K A Sengottaiyan and senior ministers Dindigul C Sreenivasan and P Thangamani.

Palaniswami has claimed that he has the support of 124 legislators, while the O Pannerselvam camp had that of only 10.

Palaniswami, the strongman of Salem district, was chosen as the legislature party leader on Tuesday, hours after Supreme Court upheld the Bengaluru special court verdict convicting AIADMK interim general secretary V K Sasikala in the disproportionate assets case.

“His name was proposed by none other than Sasikala herself,” said a senior leader. Alaniswami has the strong backing of Sasikala. 

Sasikala had preferred Edappadi to Panneerselvam to take over the reins of the government soon after Jayalalaithaa’s demis, but Panneerselvam won the race with the Centre’s backing, sources had confirmed.

The Jayalalithaa loyalist, Palaniswami rose in ranks, apparently due to his proximity to Sasikala clan.

Source : The Times of India 
- Agencies