Vijaya Baskar may get the boot soon

CHENNAI: Beleaguered health minister C Vijaya Baskar may get the boot soon as chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami is all set to rejig his cabinet as part of the AIADMK merger plans.

Along with him, two more ministers, industries minister

M C Sampath

and adi dravidar and tribals minister

V M Rajalakshmi

, are likely to be dropped from the cabinet, said sources close to the CM. “Carrying Vijaya Baskar along is a burden for the government, not merely because he brought disrepute to the government because of the I-T raids and the unaccounted assets that tumbled out of his cupboard, but also because he is Dhinakaran’s mole in the state cabinet,” said a confidante of Palaniswami.

The ruling dispensation is cut up with Vijaya Baskar for dragging the names of many ministers into the notorious money distribution logbook, which landed in the custody of I-T officials during the raids on his premises in the run-up to the countermanded R K Nagar byelection in which Dhinakaran was the AIADMK Amma faction candidate.

“The threat of collateral damage is what stopped Edappadi from acting against Vijaya Baskar so far. The Centre is exerting unrelenting pressure to dump him. His continuation in the cabinet has become untenable. The government is embarrassed with the land registration department freezing some of his family assets based on a communication from the I-T department. The I-T department has unearthed huge amount of unaccounted income in the name of the minister, his relatives and some associates,” said a senior minister adding that carrying him along would result in straining the equation with the Modi government. “These I-T raids are a reference point every time we meet Union ministers,” he said.

Sampath is perhaps paying the price for the intra-party politics in the AIADMK in Cuddalore district. Both the AIADMK and DMK are more or less evenly poised in the district as four out of nine segments are represented by the DMK in the assembly. While Sampath represents Cuddalore segment, the other four AIADMK MLAs have ganged up against him under Cuddalore AIADMK MP A Arunmozhithevan’s leadership, posing challenges to the government. The action against Sampath is to quell a possible rebellion by his rivals, said sources.

V M Rajalakshmi is a lightweight in the party. She is being dropped to accommodate another MLA, who enjoys the backing of many dalit legislators, said sources. Post-merger, the portfolio of Vijaya Baskar could go to

S Semmalai

, a heavyweight in the OPS camp and that of Sampath could go to Mafoi K Pandiarajan, a strong advocate of merger of EPS and OPS factions. A minor reshuffle of some of the portfolios allocated to senior ministers is expected depending on what portfolios OPS demands for himself.

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