The Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is the deputy to the

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu The chief minister of Tamil Nadu is the chief executive of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with th ...

, who is the head of the

government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, lik ...

. The deputy chief minister is the Council of Ministers of Tamil Nadu's second-highest ranking member. A deputy chief minister also holds a cabinet portfolio in the state ministry. In the legislative assembly system of government, the

chief minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

is treated as the "first among equals" in the cabinet; the position of deputy chief minister is used to govern the state with the support of a single party member, to bring political stability and strength within a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

, or in times of state emergency when a proper

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. It can be viewed as part of a power structure, in which it is usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part. Milit ...

is necessary. On multiple occasions, proposals have arisen to make the post permanent, but without result. The same goes for the post of deputy prime minister at the national level. The office has since been only intermittently occupied, having been occupied for a little more than 5 years out of the 12 years since its inauguration. Since 2009, Tamil Nadu has had 2 deputy chief ministers, none of whom have served at least one full term. The first was former chief minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi's third son,

M. K. Stalin Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin ( , born 1 March 1953), often referred to by his initials MKS, is an Indian Tamil politician serving as the 8th and current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The son of the former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Stalin ...

of the

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

, who was sworn in on 29 May 2009; he was also rural development and local administration minister in Karunanidhi's fifth ministry. The position was vacant until

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...

's O. Panneerselvam took over; he became the second deputy chief minister on 21 August 2017 and took on the role in addition to his finance ministership in

Edappadi K. Palaniswami Edappadi K. Palaniswami (born 12 May 1954), also known as E.P.S., is an Indian politician and the leader of opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. He served as the 7th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, from 2017 to 2021. He has been th ...

's government. He was the last person to serve as the deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu until the post became vacant. The current government does not have a deputy chief minister, and the post has been vacant since 7 May 2021.

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;List of deputy chief ministers by length of term ;Timeline ;List by party ;Parties by total duration (in days) of holding Deputy Chief Minister's Office

Living former deputy chief ministers

As of , there were two living former deputy chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, in order of service, are: File:Hon CM_Photo.jpg,

(2009–2011)
File:O. Panneerselvam.jpg, O. Panneerselvam
(2017–2021)

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deputy chief ministers of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

List

Statistics

Living former deputy chief ministers

See also

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References