The empty seat in Tamil Nadu legislature. It was used by AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa.
Though he succeeded her as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu nearly ten weeks ago, O Panneerselvam is determined to prove he is no replacement for J Jayalalithaa, the chief of his party.
Mr Panneerselvam, 63, does not use the office assigned to the Chief Minister at the government headquarters. And today, in the Tamil Nadu legislature, the seat used by Ms Jayalalithaa remained empty, with the new chief minister tenanting the chair he was assigned before his big promotion.
Ms Jayalalithaa was disqualified as a law-maker at the end of September after she was convicted of corruption and arrested. She has since been granted bail and has appealed against the verdict.
The Tamil Nadu legislature is meeting for the first time since those developments.
The ceremony which saw Mr Panneerselvam taking oath as Chief Minister, while his boss was jailed, was a maudlin one. He cried into a handkerchief; so did several other cabinet ministers.
In keeping with his wishes, Mr Panneerselvam is not referred to as the chief minister by other members of his government. Instead, they call him the Minister for Public Works, a department that he headed earlier.
Sarath Kumar, MLA and AISMK Chief, said, "As far as the AIADMK is concerned Jayalalithaa is their leader and their General Secretary. It's their prerogative to call her as Chief Minister."
This is not the first time that Mr Panneerselvam has filled in for Ms Jayalalithaa. In 2001, he took over as Chief Minister for a few weeks when she was convicted in a different criminal case.