TN Cabinet reshuffle: Duraimurugan assigned law portfolio, Regupathy appointed natural resources minister

CHENNAI: In a minor shake-up in the state cabinet, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday changed the portfolio of Duraimurugan, the senior-most member of the ministry. Chief minister Stalin divested Duraimurugan, who is also the general secretary of DMK, of the resourceful Mines and Minerals portfolio, which has now been awarded to minister S Ragupathy. The Law portfolio has been allocated to Duraimurugan, who will continue to be the minister for Water Resources.

An official Raj Bhavan communique confirming the swapping of the portfolios said, "Based on the recommendation of the chief minister, the portfolio of Law has been allotted to Duraimurugan, minister for Water Resources. Further, the portfolio of Minerals and Mines has been allotted to S Regupathy and he has been designated as minister for Natural Resources."

Thursday's portfolio swap was the second major shake-up in the cabinet in less than two weeks. During the last few days of the recently concluded session of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, the chief minister dropped senior minister and party deputy general secretary K Ponmudi from the ministry following his unquotable remarks made at a political event here recently.

The CM also allowed young and influential minister V Senthil Balaji to step down as state electricity minister in the aftermath of the Supreme Court asking him to either demit the office of minister or forfeit bail in the cash-for-jobs scam.

With only a year left for the impending assembly polls scheduled for May 2026, Stalin has cracked the whip at even some of his senior party colleagues to swing the political narrative in his favour and offset the criticism of the AIADMK-led opposition, which has been going hammer and tongs against the DMK minister's excesses.

Thursday's reshuffle is understood to have been motivated by the alleged sand mining scam the octogenarian minister or rather his family members are mired in, more so in the backdrop of the Enforcement Directorate knocking at their doors recently.