Chennai:
In a Cabinet reshuffle, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has dropped School Education Minister S S Krishnamoorthy and Revenue Minister S P Velumani - both considered to be loyalists of her former confidante Sasikala.
N R Sivapathy has been appointed as the new School Education Minister while K A Sengottaiyan, who earlier held the Information Technology portfolio, has been named the new Revenue minister.
N Subramanian has replaced Mr Sengottaiyan as the Information Technology minister.
This is Jayalalithaa's first Cabinet reshuffle after the expulsion of Sasikala in December last year. In the same month, she had removed M Palanivel and Kaliyaperumal, both relatives of Sasikala, from the primary membership of the party.
Earlier, Sasikala's husband M Natarajan and Jayalalithaa's disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran were also handed the pink slip. The move was seen as an attempt by Jayalalithaa to nip in the bud reported moves by Sasikala's family to dominate the party and influence the AIADMK government.
Sasikala has long served as Jayalalithaa's companion. She is one of the main accused in a case that alleges the Chief Minister misused her office from 1991-1996 to collect assets worth 66 crores that cannot be accounted for.
That case is being tried by a Bangalore court to ensure a fair trial. Jayalalithaa objected to being summoned by that court, but was ordered by the Supreme Court to appear in person to answer questions. Sasikala travelled with her for those hearings in a special plane from Chennai.
Sasikala has, for three decades, been acknowledged as a power centre in the AIADMK because of her proximity to Jayalalithaa. Insiders say that her opinions counted towards the selection of ministers and party candidates.
In 1996, when Jayalalithaa was beleaguered by a slew of corruption charges, she had a brief falling out with Sasikala, who belongs to the strong Thevar community, traditionally AIADMK loyalists.