Vijay broadens Tamil Nadu ministry with 23 inductions, Congress gets Cabinet berths

The C Joseph Vijay government on Thursday carried out a major expansion of the Tamil Nadu Cabinet, inducting 23 new ministers and bringing the Congress party back into the state ministry after several decades.

The expansion comes less than two weeks after Vijay was sworn in as Chief Minister and is being seen as an attempt to stabilise the newly formed administration by filling key vacancies, balancing regional representation, and accommodating alliance partners that backed the government after the Assembly elections.

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Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly inducted ministers at a ceremony attended by senior leaders of the ruling alliance.

Following the Assembly elections, Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam emerged as the single largest party with 108 seats. The party later secured support from alliance partners and Independent MLAs to cross the majority mark and form the government.

Vijay had taken oath as Chief Minister on May 10 along with a small group of ministers, including Dr KG Arunraj, KA Sengottaiyan, P Venkataramanan, Rajmohan, N Anand, Aadhav Arjuna, R Nirmalkumar, Dr TK Prabhu and S Keerthana.

Although portfolio allocation for the initial ministry was completed on May 16, several major departments such as Housing, Agriculture, Revenue, Forests, Cooperatives and MSME remained without dedicated ministers, fuelling speculation over an early Cabinet reshuffle and expansion.

Congress returns to Tamil Nadu Cabinet

A key political takeaway from Thursday’s expansion was the induction of two Congress legislators into the ministry, marking the party’s return to the Tamil Nadu Cabinet after many years.

Congress MLAs S Rajesh Kumar from Killiyoor and P Viswanathan from Melur took oath as ministers in the expanded Cabinet.

Senior alliance leaders, including Thol Thirumavalavan, were present at the swearing-in ceremony.

Who were inducted into the expanded ministry?

Among the prominent names inducted were K Thennarasu, V Sampath Kumar, RV Ranjithkumar, P Mathan Raja, K Jegadeshwari, M Vijay Balaji, T Logesh Tamilselvan, A Vijay Tamilan Parthiban, Srinath, Kamali S, C Vijayalakshmi, Rajeev, P Rajkumar, V Gandhiraj, J Mohammed Parvaz, Ramesh, R Kumar, Vinoth, T Sarathkumar, N Maria Wilson and K Vignesh.

The expansion is expected to strengthen the administrative structure of the new government while improving representation across regions and communities in the state.