MK Stalin, the DMK president who led his party to a huge victory in the recently-concluded Assembly polls, was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Friday.
The DMK President was administered the oath of office as the new chief minister by Governor Banwarilal Purohit at 9.10 am at a low-key function at Raj Bhavan.
Along with Stalin, 33 ministers — a mix of old and new — will take oath at the function in which less than 500 persons attended.
Stalin’s portfolios are Home, public, general administration, all India services, district revenue officers, special programme implementation and welfare of differently-abled persons.
Due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation, only a few invitees, including Stalin’s family; DMK MLAs; outgoing Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam (representing the AIADMK) and Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan, attended the function.
Stalin’s wife Durga Stalin and his son and MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin were seated next to each other.
Stalin, who arrived at 8.50 in the hall, received the Governor and later introduced his family to him.
Since 1967, this is the sixth time the chief minister is from the DMK, which beat the incumbent AIADMK in the elections by winning 133 seats to have a simple majority in the 234-member Assembly.
The DMK-alliance ended up with 159 seats with the Congress winning 18 seats; Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi got four seats; the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) winning two each.
Stalin has taken over as chief minister at a very challenging time as the second wave of the Covid-19 is sweeping the State.
The 68-year-old Stalin has come up in ranks in the party. He went on to become the 37th Mayor of Chennai from 1996 to 2002. He was also the first Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 2009 to 2011. In the recently held elections, he successfully retained his seat from Kolathur constituency in the city.