Despite quitting the Stalin cabinet, Senthil Balaji’s political utility hasn’t diminished, and he is likely to get a prominent role in the ruling DMK as the party in-charge of the ‘Kongu region’, western Tamil Nadu districts, according to party sources.

Along with Forest Minister K Ponmudy, he resigned as Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise as both were facing judicial heat. Consequent to this, Chief Minister MK Stalin has reallocated the portfolios in a minor cabinet rejig on Sunday. While it is sunset years for Ponmudy, who has been stripped of his party post as Deputy General Secretary earlier, the graph continues to be upward for Senthil Balaji, who had to quit following the Supreme Court ultimatum to choose between ministerial office and freedom — cancellation of bail.

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Hailing from the dominant OBC Goundar community of the region, Senthil Balaji, with his wide network remains a fulcrum of the party’s strategy to consolidate the DMK in these districts – Coimbatore, Karur, Tirupur and Erode besides the periphery of Namakkal and Dindigul, which have been the traditional hunting ground of the AIADMK. The latter, in alliance with the BJP, could give a tough fight for the DMK in the 2026 assembly election, and hence the importance of Senthil Balaji.

A former minister in the AIADMK government of Jayalalithaa, he teamed up with VK Sasikala’s nephew TTV Dhinakaran, who launched the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) before switching to the DMK in 2018. In the 2021 assembly election, the AIADMK-BJP combine had won most of the constituencies in the Kongu region – 33 out of 50 seats. But, he helped turn the tables in favour of the DMK in the 2022 civic elections and then in the LS polls. Despite being in prison (judicial custody) in the PMLA case during the 2024 LS polls, he had ensured that the DMK contested the Coimbatore seat, traditionally given to an alliance party, and ensured victory by defeating BJP’s K Annamalai by a margin of 1.14 lakh votes.

Starting his political career in the MDMK of Vaiko, he switched to the DMK and then joined AIADMK. He went along with Dhinakaran when the AIADMK split, only to make a comeback to the DMK after falling out with him. But the past continues to haunt him. It was the cash-for-jobs scam when he was transport minister between 2011-2015, which led to his arrest by the ED in June 14, 2023, and incarceration for 471 days till he secured bail from the Supreme Court on September 26, 2024. A complaint by an MTC (Metropolitan Transport Corporation) technical staff, alleging payment of Rs 40 lakh bribe, but failed to get a job, had triggered the ED probe. He is one among the many victims who were promised various jobs, and the ED had linked the Rs 1.34 crore unaccounted cash deposit in the bank accounts of Senthil Balaji and his wife to this cash-for-jobs scam. Ironically, the DMK, then in the opposition, too, had raised the complaint against him.

The DMK leadership keeping Senthil Balaji as its Man Friday, however, pokes a hole in its anti-corruption image and narrative as the party gets into election mode, say analysts who explain that this would be used by the opposition to beat the Dravidian major.