Who Runs Tamil Nadu Administration in Jayalalithaa’s Absence?

Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has been hospitalised for more than 10 days, and her 32 cabinet ministers are religiously waiting at the hospital - which begs the pertinent question about who is running the government now?

Digging deeper on the issue, it has been found that retired IAS officer, Sheela Balakrishnan, 62, is credited with running the state administration while the chief minister is battling her illness. “Jayalalithaa has implicit trust in Sheela Balakrishnan, both for her abilities and attitude, which is why she has become the most important person in the state now. Nothing moves without her consent, even ministers are taking instructions from her,” pointed out a senior official who did not wish to be named.

Few in Tamil Nadu are willing to come on record on how the administration is being run in absence of Jayalalithaa who has been hospitalised for more than 10 days. Top officials visiting the Apollo hospital say their visits are for twin purposes: To check on the chief minister’s health and to also seek guidance from the bespectacled Balakrishnan. The 1976-batch IAS officer hailsing from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

But Balakrishnan is the person whom top officials such as chief secretary P Rama Mohan Rao and director general of police TK Rajendran actively seek out. Balakrishnan retired in 2014, but was appointed as the CM’s official adviser soon after. Influential ministers including O Panneerselvam, who became the chief minister twice when Jayalalithaa had to step down because of legal troubles, play marginal roles.

Though no major policy decisions are being taken in Jayalalithaa’s absence, officials say Balakrishnan is ensuring the administration runs smoothly. Orders dictated from the hospital are being implemented and overseen by another IAS officer, Santha Sheela Nair, from the chief minister’s office.

MG Devasahayam, a former top bureaucrat, pointed out that Balakrishnan, with more than three decades of administrative experience, has the required acumen to run the state. She first got into Jayalalithaa’s good books while serving in the chief minister’s secretariat in 2002. Her bond with the chief minister grew further in 2012 when the chief secretary’s post fell vacant, she even superseded her IAS-husband R Balakrishnan to occupy the top administrative position.