Just a day after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay inducted 23 ministers in the state's first major cabinet expansion, his government moved swiftly on Friday to fill the remaining ally quotas — with VCK's Vanni Arasu and IUML's AM Shahjahan being sworn in as ministers at Lok Bhavan in Chennai.
The two ministers-designate — IUML's AM Shahjahan, who represents the Papanasam Assembly constituency, and VCK's Vanni Arasu, the MLA from Tindivanam constituency — were sworn in at a ceremony held at 9:30 am at Lok Bhavan, following a recommendation by CM Vijay that was approved by the Governor.
The induction completes a cabinet-building exercise that has moved in two distinct phases.
On Thursday, Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath as ministers to 23 MLAs at Lok Bhavan, with 21 from the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam and two from the Congress party. Their inclusion marked the first time since 1967 that the Congress party formally joined the Tamil Nadu government — a notable break from the Dravidian era tradition in which neither the DMK nor the AIADMK ever accommodated allies within cabinet.
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Congress MLAs S Rajesh Kumar and P Viswanathan were allocated the Tourism and Higher Education portfolios respectively. KA Sengottaiyan, who previously held Finance, was moved to Revenue and Disaster Management, while TVK's N Marie Wilson was named Minister for Finance, Planning and Development.
The Tamil Nadu government also created a dedicated Artificial Intelligence department at the cabinet level — making it only the second state in the country after Kerala to do so. Notably, for the first time in Tamil Nadu's 74-year political history, four women were inducted into the cabinet.
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With the addition of Vanni Arasu and Shahjahan, the cabinet strength now reaches 34 — one short of the constitutional maximum of 35, which is 15 per cent of the Assembly's total strength.
Friday's inductions close out a carefully sequenced expansion- one that has brought Congress, VCK, and IUML under Vijay's coalition umbrella while signalling a broad political realignment in Tamil Nadu's post-Dravidian landscape.
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