Old fort to be Jayalalithaa’s new command centre

Riding the public anger on scam charges against M Karunanidhi’s DMK, the lady of Poes Garden has come to power for a third time. HTreports.

Riding the public anger on scam charges against M Karunanidhi’s DMK, the lady of Poes Garden has come to power for a third time. And like her West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, J Jayalalithaa has swiftly got rid of the frills and got down to business.

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Restoring law and order is apparently top priority for the AIADMK government. Reportedly, Jayalalithaa spent 20 days deciding key bureaucratic and police appointments at her Kodanad estate in the Nilgiris, before returning to Chennai last week in time for election results.

Sources confirmed the hunt for a new chief secretary, DGP and city police commissioner had already begun. It may be recalled that the election commissioner had, soon after the elections were announced, transferred state DGP Letika Sharan, who was perceived to be close to Karunanidhi.

Jayalalithaa is expected to function from the old secretariat at St George Fort — where the chief minister's chambers are getting refurbished — and not from the new secretariat complex built by Karunanidhi.

After garlanding the statue of the party founder and her mentor MG Ramachandran at the party headquarters on Saturday, Jayalalithaa spent some time with her party leaders. Soon after, she told media that she would call on the governor on Sunday to stake a claim to form the government. The buzz is that swearing-in ceremony is on Monday, but the final word is yet to come.

Meanwhile, the MLAs-elect of her alliance partner DMDK met on Saturday to formally elect Vijayakanth as their leader. With 29 seats, DMDK would be the recognised opposition party.