Finally, dotting up all the speculations, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has performed a cabinet overhaul as his administration enters the third year. The cabinet reshuffle had been the talk of the town for the past few days and as there were slew of controversies around several ministers, the DMK government was pushed to do a damage control. The overhaul appeared to be imminent and inevitable and it has been expected that there would be more intra-cabinet changes. 

While it was reported that about two to three ministers would be expelled from the Tamil Nadu Cabinet in the wake of poor performances and public outcries, MK Stalin has announced that only one Minister has been ousted from the cabinet and a new face has been inducted as a replacement. While the expelled minister is Avadi Nasar, who had been serving as the Minister of Dairy Development, the minister-designate is TRB Rajaa, a DMK MLA from Mannargudi. 

TRB Rajaa has been a leading contender in the race to the cabinet and he is now all set to serve in teh cabinet as a first-time minister. Rajaa's portfolio would be declared tomorrow and MK Stalin would play out a major rejig in the council of ministers as a handful of ministers would be taking up a new portfolio. On the other hand, Avadi Nasar has become the first minister to get expelled from the Tamil Nadu cabinet and his track record gives us a conviction on his ouster. 

When the talk of cabinet reshuffle made headlines, the signs were clear that Nasar would be dropped off from the cabinet and would be shown the door. From his contentious conducts to his son's outrageous politics in his district, there are several reasons why Nasar's expulsion from the cabinet wasn't something that surprised the state. Let's take a look at five reasons behind Nasar's unsurprising ouster, 

Flawed performance 

Nasar is a native of Thiruvallur district and had been DMK's kingpin in the district. Interestingly, Nasar entered the assembly as a first-time MLA from the Avadi constituency and he was made minister in his very first term as an MLA. While he lost in the 2016 assembly polls from Avadi, he again contested from Avadi in the 2021 assembly polls and defeated ADMK's Pandiarajan at a margin of 55,275 votes. He was named the Minister for Milk and Dairy Development. However, his ministerial tenure was full of hot potatoes. 

The first trouble for him was his flawed performances as a minister. Chief Minister MK Stalin was hardly happy with his performances, especially over the disruption of milk supply to households in the state due to a friction with the contract workers. Moreover, there were also complaints against Nasar about the misappropriation of funds in Tamil Nadu's Milk Cooperative Board, Aavin. Nasar has also faced pressure over the strike announced by the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Welfare Association. There were criticisms from the opposition parties including ADMK and BJP over a scam in quantities of milk packets. All these issues and flawed performances gave a reason why Nasar's expulsion was long expected. 

Son turns out to be a troublemaker

Had there been an one concrete reason why Nasar was dropped from the cabinet, it would be the outrageous politics by Nasar's son Aasim Raja. Aasim Raja has been serving as the DMK councillor in the Avadi Corporation and with his father being a minister, Raja's local politics was in a fashion that embarassed the DMK's high command. It has been reported that Raja's dominance was rampant across the corporation and he had even controlled the Mayor. 

Raja's politics and lobby had drawn attention from across the state and put the DMK government under pressure. As a sign of warning to Nasar and his son Raja, DMK, few months back, ousted Raja from the post of party's secretary in Avadi. However, Raja's political play didn't stop even after getting a political demotion. As Raja continued to have an upper hand under the ministerial backing from his father, he eventually turned to be a troublemaker and had become one of the reasons why Nasar was dropped from the cabinet.  

Pelting stones at DMK cadres 

It was another event that put Nasar's career at stake. Earlier this January, Nasar was in Tiruvallur to take stock of the arrangements for an event, that was attended by MK Stalin. When he visited the venue, it was reported that the DMK cadres made a delay in bringing him a chair. Nasar lost his cool and deliberately pelted stones at the DMK cadres for delaying in bringing a chair. The video of Nasar picking up the stones and throwing on the functionaries went viral on social media and now, his expulsion from the cabinet is going viral. 

The 'Shoe' controversy 

In April 2023, Nasar visited former DMK president Karunanidhi's memorial in Chennai. Before entering the venue, he removed his footwear and paid his respects to the deceased leader. However, when he was returning back to his car, one of his assistants was seen carrying his shoes and placing them inside the car. The event sparked controversy and became a talking point to the opposition parties that slammed Nasar for making his assistant to carry his footwear and demanded his removal. 

Nasar's version on how DMK came to power

In August 2021, Nasar put out his version of how DMK came to power by stating that it was due to the prayers from the Christian community. While addressing an event that was organized by AG Church in Tiruvallur, Nasar said, "Only because of the strength of the prayers of the Christian community, there has been a change of rule in the state. DMK has come to power, thanks to the prayers of Christian community. Their prayers have such a power." When his remarks sparked a backlash and stunned the DMK leadership, Nasar backtracked and claimed that he made such statement to make Christians happy. However, it didn't go well with the top and made to the list of his controversies and all these reasons have combined together to oust him from the cabinet.