Kolkata, July 13: The ‘sudden’ Sunday decision of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to divest his ‘close confidant’ Durai Murugan of the Public Works portfolio and taking charge of them has given rise to speculation that more Ministers, especially the non-performing ones and those who had ‘betrayed’ the party during the Lok Sabha polls, would face the action.
Even as many theories were doing the rounds on the ‘real reasons’ behind the action against Durai Murugan, the senior Minister attended the Assembly today.
He, however, was not in his usual self and remained grim even as Finance Minister K Anbazhagan made a statement under Rule 110 over the announcement made from the Raj Bhavan that the subjects of public works, irrigation including minor irrigation and programme works, hitherto held by Durai Murugan, had been reallocated to the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, it is said that Karunanidhi and his son and Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin are getting ready for a further reshuffle in the Cabinet, making some of the Ministers face reallocation and some others to even face the axe.
According to sources in the know, the Chief Minister, based on a ‘report card’ submitted by Stalin, has decided to show the door to a few ‘non-performing’ Cabinet colleagues. He has also planned to ‘reward’ some young MLAs, who had worked hard for the party’s victory in the Parliamentary polls, with Ministerial berths.
For, addressing DMK legislators on the eve of the start of Assembly session last month, Karunanidhi said, ‘All those who worked against the DMK in the Lok Sabha elections would be removed, as their continuance would not augur well for the party in the Assembly elections.’
‘If you think that I am going too far, you should ask your conscience,’ the Chief Minister said and added: ‘Those who betray the interests of the party cannot remain as partymen. We will expose them and move them before the assembly elections.
–Agencies