Jaya sacks three ministers, six party functionaries

Chennai: Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa on Monday sacked three ministers and six district heads in the backdrop of her party's defeat in three Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

She dismissed Minister for Revenue BV Ramanaa, Minister for Agriculture S Damodaran and Minister for Labour KT Pachamal and inducted into her ministry Agri SS Krishnamoorthy, SP Velumani and S Gokula Indira, whom she had sacked earlier in the previous ministry re-cast exercises.

The new ministers will take oath on Tuesday, a communique from Raj Bhavan said in Chennai.

Jayalalithaa also effected changes in the portfolios of some ministers and allocated Revenue Department to RB Udayakumar who hitherto held Youth Welfare and Sports Development.

KP Munuswamy, who now holds Municipal Administration and Rural Development, has been given Labour Ministry.

S Sundararaj will be the new Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare. He now holds Handlooms and Textiles department.

Agriculture portfolio has been allocated to Agri Krishnamoorthy, Municipal Administration to Velumani and Handloom and Textile Ministry to Indira, the communique said.

Apparently incensed over the defeat of party candidates in Kanyakumari, Dharmapuri and Puducherry, Jayalalithaa, who is also the General Secretary of the party, ousted six party functionaries including Ramanaa (Tiruvallur North District Secretary).

The party functionaries who faced the axe include Kanyakumari East District Secretary A Sivaselvarajan, Kanyakumari West District Secretary D John Thangam, Dharmapuri District Secretary KP Anbhazhagan, MLA, Puducherry District Secretary A Anbhazhagan, MLA, Puducherry J Jayalalithaa Peravai Secretary Om Shakti Segar.

While Kanyakumari seat was won by BJP, its ally PMK notched up Dharmapuri and ruling AINRC, also an NDA partner wrested Puducherry seat from Congress.

Despite AIADMK's emphatic win in 37 of the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, a feat that ensured the rout of DMK, Congress and BJP-led six party alliance, Jayalalithaa cracked the whip apparently viewing seriously the loss of three seats and sending a message to partymen to pull up their socks for assembly elections due in two years.