Chennai:
A historic day for the Congress in Tamil Nadu. A leader from the party took oath as minister in the state government after 60 years. The Congress has become part of Tamil Nadu government for the first time since 1967. But not without a dash of controversy. As Congress MLA S Rajesh Kumar took oath of office, a controversy broke out as he hailed Congress leaders from the podium inviting a swipe from Governor Rajendra Viswanath Arlekar, who was administering the oath of office to the new ministers.
The Congress legislature party leader representing Killiyoor constituency, is one of the two Congress leaders to take oath as minister in the Vijay-led TVK government.
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While reading out the oath text from the official paper, Kumar suddenly hailed Congress leaders Kamaraj, Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as he finished his oath. The invocations of the Congress leaders drew a sharp and spontaneous reminder from the governor to the Congress leader. “That is not part of your oath,” the governor snapped back, but with a smile. S Rajesh Kumar also smiled back at being checked on his sloganeering and went to sign his oath document.
#Watch | Congress MLA’s Rajiv & Rahul Gandhi Slogan During Oath, Governor Corrects Himhttps://t.co/zhbctnTl5b pic.twitter.com/wY86BWbQ6R
— NDTV (@ndtv) May 21, 2026
Video of the oath taking ceremony showed S Rajesh Kumar saying, “long live the name of Kamaraj” (late Congress veteran from Tamil Nadu), “long live Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi” (former Prime Minister), and long live people’s leader Rahul Gandhi”.
Congress with five MLAs in the Tamil Nadu Assembly is a key component of the TVK government after Vijay-led party fell short of majority in the results. Congress was the first to announce support for the TVK snapping ties with longstanding ally DMK. Although Congress was a DMK ally for 20 years, it was never a part of the DMK ministries in the state.
Joseph Vijay took oath of office as the chief minister alongwith nine ministers on May 10. On Thursday he expanded his Cabinet with the inclusion of 21 TVK and two Congress MLAs.