Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and ruling DMK president MK Stalin on Wednesday made it clear that his cabinet colleague  Senthil Balaji is an important cog in the wheel of the DMK and his comeback into the government was significant.

“Senthil Balaji has made a comeback to implement the government schemes. Demolishing all the stumbling blocks placed against him by some as he was an able performer. He has returned to serve Coimbatore better than before,” he said after laying the foundation stones for the ultra-modern Periyar Library and the Science Centre at Anupparpalayam in Coimbatore.

It was a reiteration of his earlier remark on Tuesday evening at the interaction with party functionaries of Coimbatore district where he said, “Coimbatore has given many stalwarts for the DMK. Senthil Balaji is one such though he hails from neighbouring Karur district.” Stalin effusive in his praise of Senthil Balaji is not without reason. For he was instrumental in turning the tables in Western Tamil Nadu, considered a bastion of the AIADMK, in favour of the DMK.

Arrested on June 14 last in a money-laundering case linked to a cash-for-job scam when he was a minister in the then Jayalalithaa government, Balaji secured bail from the Supreme Court in September this year. Within a week, he was re-inducted into the cabinet, along with the elevation of Udhayanidhi Stalin as the Deputy CM, and allocated his previous portfolios of Electricity and Prohibition and Excise.

Stating that only the DMK had an enviable strong organisational structure in the state, he urged the functionaries to spread the achievements of the government and also inculcate the Dravidian ideology among the youth through appropriate programmes. “I have fixed a target of winning 200 seats out of the 234 assembly segments. Let’s work for the resurgent DMK to capture power for the seventh time For this, create 10 to 15 ideologically committed youth in your locality and spend at least two hours a day for and a day on the weekend for party work so that we not only repeat the performance in the 2024 LS polls but better our performance,” he said.

On the DMK’s role in developing the state into an industrial powerhouse and second in economic might, he told the audience at Anupparpalayam that when CN Annadurai launched the party way back in 1949, the slogan was ‘North is flourishing, south is declining’. “But, we have changed that and Tamil Nadu is far ahead of northern states. In fact, it is the south which is providing the north liberally,” he maintained. “We have a vision and being in power is a tool to realize that vision,” he added.