The twists and turns in Tamil Nadu politics -- which had a Chief Minister, a Chief Minister-elect and a caretaker Chief Minister in under two weeks -- reached the denouement on Thursday after ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami and Cabinet were sworn in by Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao.

The climax has been fixed for Saturday when the State Assembly will convene for a special session to vote on the confidence motion that the new Chief Minister will move.

The ‘new’ 31-member Cabinet, in fact, is same as the one held by rebel leader O Panneerselvam barring two exceptions, OPS himself and his colleague K Pandiarajan -- only ministers in the rebel camp.

The new AIADMK praesidium chairman KA Sengottaiyan has been accommodated instead of Pandiarajan. There are no changes in departments either.

What is interesting is the long list of important portfolios that are now with the Chief Minister -- Home, Finance, PWD, Irrigation, Highways and Minor Ports, besides the usual Public, General Administration, IAS, IPS and IFS among others.

Though deflated by the turn of events, the rebels have promised to continue their fight till the party is saved from the control of interim general secretary VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran, who is now the deputy general secretary and, in her absence, the de facto chief. The real fight would be over, however, only on the floor of the House.

Only 9 MLAs joined Panneerselvam in his revolt against Sasikala and her family. Of them, only OPS and Education Minister Pandiarajan have been suspended from the party. This means the others would have to follow the party whip at the time of voting or risk disqualification.

By not taking action against the smaller fries, the party has kept open a mutually beneficial window of opportunity.

Enlisting their support is important for the Sasikala camp, too. Even assuming that the trust vote proceeds without any further drama, Palanisamy government would have only 124 MLAs in the House of 234 -- only six more than simple majority -- if rebels are kept away. That is way too thin a buffer to run a government comfortably.

Without the presence of the primary unifying and disciplining factor, late leader J Jayalalithaa, Palaniswami will have to go the extra mile to keep all sections of the party in good humour. However, for once, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is the first among equals, and not a towering personality who makes the rest of the Cabinet irrelevant.

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