A former Jayalalithaa loyalist who had a quick rise in DMK: Who is Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji, now arrested by ED?

Senior DMK ministers, including Youth Welfare and Sports Development Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, Health Minister M Subramanian and Public Welfare Department (PWD) Minister E V Velu, Law Minister S Regupathy rushed to the hospital but were reportedly not allowed to meet the arrested minister.

#WATCH | Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji breaks down as ED officials took him into custody in connection with a money laundering case and brought him to Omandurar Government in Chennai for medical examination pic.twitter.com/aATSM9DQpu

— ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2023

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said Wednesday that the ED’s purpose was to “torture Balaji”.

In a Tamil tweet, he said: “What was the purpose of the ED to torture Senthil Balaji so that he would get chest pain even after he said he would fully cooperate with the investigation?”

He added, “Is it necessary for the ED to act in such a dehumanising manner in violation of legal procedures of the case? The DMK won’t be afraid of the BJP’S threats. People will learn a lesson in 2024.”

On May 27, Income Tax (IT) department officials who were conducting raids on 40 properties belonging to DMK minister Senthil Balaji and his associates across Chennai and Coimbatore faced resistance from the leader’s supporters. Official vehicles were attacked and searches were also aborted in some locations.

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This outpouring of support then – about 200 DMK workers confronted the I-T officials in his constituency Karur – gives a sense of the heft that Balaji has established over the years in western Tamil Nadu and the influence he commands in the politically-significant OBC Goundar community that he belongs to.

Balaji, 47, who was born into a poor farming community, holds the electricity and excise portfolios in Chief Minister M K Stalin’s Cabinet. A four-time MLA, he made his electoral debut in 2006 on an AIADMK ticket. He was also in former CM J Jayalalithaa’s Cabinet between 2011 and 2015. He joined the DMK three years later.

His stint as an AIADMK leader was marked by his allegiance to Jayalalithaa. In that period, he had made news for holding special pujas, lighting lakhs of lamps, wearing headgear denoting the party symbol, and breaking coconuts to honour his leader and the party. Balaji was the strategist behind 2013’s Amma water initiative which was aimed at providing affordable drinking water. He had even shaved his head in support of the former CM after she was acquitted in a disproportionate assets case in 2017.

But the two had a falling out subsequently and he lost his Cabinet post and his responsibility as the party’s Karur district secretary in 2015. During the rumblings in the party after Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, he supported the V K Sasikala-TTV Dhinakaran faction.

Balaji switched to the DMK in 2018. He also managed to quickly make his way up the DMK’s ladder, becoming a key face in the Stalin government now.

But it is his home turf of Karur where he exercises real control. Local leaders say that the job fairs and blood donation camps he organises have amassed him a significant following. In 2021, he had told The Indian Express that the projects were important to keep supporters by his side. “People should be able to contact me directly,” he had said.

Balaji is also credited with setting up e-Seva centres in Karur through which the public can access free government services. Many youngsters in the district’s party circle carry his picture on their cell phone screens, cases and shirts.

The arrest has also been condemned by the Opposition, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.