TN Minister Senthil Balaji's high voltage dismissal and expeditious climb down

HYDERABAD: TN Minister V Senthil Balaji was on Thursday unilaterally sacked by the Governor for five hours from the council of ministers.

June 29 Evening –TN Governor RN Ravi took unprecedented decision to dismiss V Senthil Balaji, a minister without portfolio, who has been under ED’s custody since June 14 in connection with Cash for Jobs scam dating back to his term as a transport minister in 2011-16 AIADMK government.

In a five page letter, the governor had reasoned how there were reasonable apprehensions that continuation of V Senthil Balaji, accused in the Cash for Jobs scam, in the Tamil Nadu council of ministers will adversely impact the due process of law, including fair investigation that may eventually lead to the breakdown of constitutional machinery in the state.

This caused a huge uproar in the political circles with Governor even being accused of going beyond his act of BJP and Central Government’s agent and acting in absolute dictatorial manner. CM MK Stalin had stated that the Governor has no power to dismiss a minister and they will take the legal action against this.

June 29 2023 Late Night –Merely five hours after announcing this big unprecedented action, Raj Bhavan late in the night sent another letter to CM MK Stalin informing that the Governor has decided to seek the opinion of Attorney General in the matter and that the decision to dismiss V Senthil Balaji may be kept in abeyance until further communication from him.

This expeditious climb down has been ascribed to the intervention of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah who advised the Governor to seek legal opinion of the Attorney General before proceeding further.