New Delhi: Union Environment Minister A Raja was on Tuesday appointed the new Communications and Information Technology Minister in place of Dayanidhi Maran, who resigned on Sunday.
DMK leader, Minister of State for Home S Regupathy, has been moved to the Environment Ministry in the same rank. The Prime Minister will lead the ministry for now.
Raja, 44, is a lawyer and is this is his third term in Lok Sabha. He represents the Perambalur reserved constituency.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said that on the advice of the Prime Minister, President A P J Abdul Kalam has accepted the resignation of Maran from the Council of Ministers.
Maran was forced by the party to resign in the wake a family divide triggered by a survey carried by Dinakaran newspaper, owned by Maran's elder brother Kalanidhi, that resulted in violence in Madurai leading to loss of three lives.
Raja was selected after Dayanidhi resigned from the cabinet on his granduncle and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s order on Sunday.
Karunanidhi is reportedly furious with Dayanidhi and his elder brother Kalanidhi for publishing a survey in their newspaper Dinakaran which said 70 per cent people in Tamil Nadu wanted the CM’s elder son, M K Stalin, to succeed his father.
Alleged supporters of Karunanidhi’s elder son, M K Azhagiri, on May 9 torched a Dinakaran office in Madurai on May 9 while protesting against the survey. Azhagiri has sued the Sun TV network, owned by Kalanidhi, for broadcasting “defamatory” articles against him. Three persons died in the violence.
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