Chennai: Taking a portrait of his party supremo J. Jayalalithaa from his pocket, he placed it on the lectern before taking his oath in the low profile swearing in ceremony held at the durbar hall in Raj Bhavan on Monday.
In repeating the words “O Panneerselvam enum naan”, after Governor K Rosaiah, the senior AIADMK leader, Panneerselvam, was overwhelmed by emotion and broke down while taking oath as the 28th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
The ministers who followed Mr Panneerselvam in oath-taking were also not audible and quite a few were fighting back tears as they were being sworn in. All the 30 ministers retained their portfolios that had earlier been allocated by Jayalalithaa.
On his first working day as the new CM, Mr Paneerselvam had a few select visitors, mostly state top brass and some ministers. He had brief sessions with chief secretary Mohan Verghese Chunkath, DGP K. Ramanujam and officers attached to the CMO. Senior ministers and Chennai mayor Saidai S Duraisamy also called on the CM during his brief stay at the secretariat.
