A fresh row erupted between the DMK Government and the Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Thursday after the Governor returned the file on the reallocation of portfolios following the arrest of Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji.
Chief minister M K Stalin had recommended to the Governor to reallocate the portfolios of electricity and prohibition held by Balaji to Ministers Thangam Thennarasu and S Muthusamy, but Ravi had not accepted the recommendations.
State Higher Education minister K Ponmudi, who spoke for the DMK government, flayed the Governor for the stance, stating that the Governor "is acting like the agent of the BJP government at the Centre".
"The chief minister had the right to decide on the portfolio allocations or in inducting a minister or dropping a minister from the council of ministers, as per the constitution and not the Governor."
"On May 31, the Governor sent a letter to the chief minister asking to drop Senthil Balaji and the very next day, Stalin had given a detailed reply. The Governor, who ought to know the constitution, should have accepted the CM's recommendation on the portfolio reallocation. But the Governor is acting like the agent of the BJP government at the Centre," Ponmudi said.
"Merely because a minister faces a case, he can't be removed. Was Home Minister Amit Shah who faced a case when he was a state minister, sacked?" Ponmudi asked and added in the past many AIADMK ministers who faced cases were not sacked.
Ponmudi also accused the Governor of playing cheap politics by selectively leaking his May 31 letter and not the June 1 reply of the chief minister.
Medical bulletin
The private hospital where Senthil Balaji is undergoing treatment has said that the minister was being treated in the ICU with cardiac monitoring. Balaji was shifted to the Kauvery Main Hospital here on Thursday from a government facility in the city.
According to the medical bulletin issued by Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, co-founder and Executive Director, Kauvery Group of Hospitals, Senthil Balaji is being treated by a team of doctors led by A R Raghuram, Senior Consultant Cardio Thoracic Surgeon, who has advised early Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery.
"He is undergoing further tests to assess fitness for anaesthesia and based on the assessment, the surgery will be planned," it added. "Balaji is currently being treated in ICU with cardiac monitoring and being looked after by a multidisciplinary team of doctors and nurses," it added.
Balaji was arrested by the ED in a cash-for-jobs scam allegedly involving him when he was Transport minister in the then CM J Jayalalithaa-led cabinet.
(With inputs from PTI)