Guv vs Stalin govt: Tamil Nadu Governor refuses to appoint reinstated MLA as minister

Chennai: Opening yet another front against the DMK dispensation, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Sunday refused to accept the recommendation of Chief Minister M K Stalin to appoint senior politician K Ponmudy as a minister after he was reinstated as an MLA last week.

Ponmudy was dropped as Higher Education Minister and disqualified as a legislator in December 2023 after the Madras High Court convicted him in a disproportionate assets (DA) case under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

However, the Supreme Court on March 11 stayed Ponmudy’s conviction and suspended the four-year sentence awarded to him. Immediately after the order copy was released on March 13, Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu issued an order declaring that Ponmudy has been reinstated as the MLA from Thirukkoyilur assembly constituency.

Wasting no time, Stalin wrote to the Governor the same day asking him to appoint Ponmudy as a minister and administer the oath of office and secrecy to him.

However, the Governor, who was in Delhi till Saturday, wrote to the Chief Minister on Sunday evening, refusing to swear-in Ponmudy as a minister.

“The Governor has said, in the letter, that he cannot administer the oath of office to Ponmudy as his conviction has not been struck down by the Supreme Court citing the pendency of the case. He has expressed his inability in appointing Ponmudy as a minister,” a source in the know told DH.

The source added that the Governor’s move was “surprising” as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has accepted the Speaker’s move to reinstate Ponmudy as an MLA by not announcing bypolls. “Ponmudy is an MLA now. We don’t know why he can’t be a minister,” another source added.

Sources told DH that the state government is exploring all options, including knocking at the doors of the judiciary, on the matter.

This is the second time that the Governor is clashing with the Stalin government on the issue of appointment or dismissal of ministers. In June 2023, the Governor unilaterally “dismissed” V Senthil Balaji from the Cabinet after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case, only to put the decision in “abeyance” a couple of hours later. Stalin had not just “disregarded” the Governor’s communication but told him that he has “no powers" to dismiss his ministers.

The latest development is likely to intensify the tussle between the Raj Bhavan and Fort St. George, the seat of power of the Tamil Nadu government, just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The Governor and the DMK dispensation clashed with each other on a slew of matters, most importantly in the functioning of state-funded universities, prompting the government to knock at the doors of the Supreme Court last year seeking to impose a timeline for the Governor to decide on bills sent to him by the Assembly.