Government of Tamil Nadu

Seat of Government	Fort St. George, Chennai
Legislative branch
Assembly	Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Speaker	J. C. D. Prabhakar[1][2]
Deputy Speaker	M. Ravisankar[3]
Members in Assembly	234
Executive branch
Governor	Rajendra Arlekar
Chief Minister	C. Joseph Vijay
Judiciary
High Court	Madras High Court
Chief Justice	S. A. Dharmadhikari

The Tamil Nadu Council of Ministers is the executive wing of the Government of Tamil Nadu and is headed by the State's Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who is the head of government and leader of the state cabinet. The current state council of ministers were sworn in on 10 May 2026, following the 2026 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election.^[4] The term of every executive wing is for 5 years. The council of ministers are assisted by department secretaries attached to each ministry who are from the Tamil Nadu cadre of the IAS.^[5] The chief executive officer responsible for issuing orders on behalf of the Government is the Chief Secretary to the State Government, with Dr. M. Sai Kumar being the current holder of that position.^[6]

According to Article 163 of the Indian Constitution,

# There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his function, except in so far as he is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion.

1. If any question arises whether any matter is or is not a matter as respects which the Governor is by or under this Constitution required to act in his discretion, the decision of the Governor in his discretion shall be final, and the validity of anything done by the Governor shall not be called in question on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in his discretion.
2. The question whether any, and if so what, advice was tendered by Ministers to the Governor shall not be inquired into in any court.

This means that the Ministers serve under the pleasure of the Governor and he/she may remove them, on the advice of the Chief Minister, whenever they want.

The Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister, and the Minister shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor:
Provided that in the States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, there shall be a Minister in charge of tribal welfare who may in addition be in charge of the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and backward classes or any other work.

# The Council of Minister shall be collectively responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the State.

1. Before a Minister enters upon his office, the Governor shall administer to him the oaths of office and of secrecy according to the forms set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule.
2. A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.
3. The salaries and allowances of Ministers shall be such as the Legislature of the State may from time to time by law determine and, until the Legislature of the State so determines, shall be a specified in the Second Schedule.

Like any Indian state, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is the real head of the government and responsible for state administration. He is the leader of the parliamentary party in the legislature and heads the state cabinet.

Like any state, Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is the deputy head of the government and senior minister of cabinet after the Chief Minister.

As per Indian Constitution, all portfolios of state government is vested in Chief Minister, who distribute various portfolio to individual ministers whom he nominates to the State Governor. The state governor appoints individual ministers for various portfolios and departments as per advice of Chief Minister and together form the State Cabinet. As the original portfolios are vested with CM, who delegates to others upon his/her wish, actions of individual ministers are part of collective responsibility of the state cabinet and Chief Minister is responsible for actions of each minister. The state cabinet along with Chief Minister, prepares General policy and individual department policy, which will be guiding policy for day-to-day administration of each minister.

S.No	Name	Constituency	Designation	Department	Party
1.	C. Joseph Vijay	Perambur	Chief Minister	Public General Administration Indian Administrative Service Indian Police Service Indian Forest Service All India Service District Revenue Officers Police Home		TVK
Cabinet Ministers
2.	N. Anand	Thiyagarayanagar	Minister	TBA		TVK
3.	Aadhav Arjuna	Villivakkam	Minister	TBA
4.	K. G. Arunraj	Tiruchengode	Minister	TBA
5.	K. A. Sengottaiyan	Gobichettipalayam	Minister	TBA
6.	P. Venkataramanan	Mylapore	Minister	TBA
7.	C. T. R. Nirmal Kumar	Thiruparankundram	Minister	TBA
8.	Rajmohan	Egmore	Minister	TBA
9.	T. K. Prabhu	Karaikudi	Minister	TBA
10	S. Keerthana	Sivakasi	Minister	TBA

Sl. no	Chief Minister	Ministry	Party		Election
21.	M. K. Stalin	M. K. Stalin ministry	DMK		2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
20.	Edappadi K. Palaniswami	Palaniswami ministry	AIADMK		2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
19.	O. Panneerselvam	Third Panneerselvam ministry
18.	J. Jayalalithaa	Sixth Jayalalithaa ministry
17.		Fifth Jayalalithaa ministry			2011 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
16.	O. Panneerselvam	Second Panneerselvam ministry
15.	J. Jayalalithaa	Fourth Jayalalithaa ministry
14.	M. Karunanidhi	Fifth Karunanidhi ministry	DMK		2006 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
13.	J. Jayalalithaa	Third Jayalalithaa ministry	AIADMK		2001 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
12.	O. Panneerselvam	First Panneerselvam ministry
11.	J. Jayalalithaa	Second Jayalalithaa ministry
10.	M. Karunanidhi	Fourth Karunanidhi ministry	DMK		1996 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
9.	J. Jayalalithaa	First Jayalalithaa ministry	AIADMK		1991 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
8.	M. Karunanidhi	Third Karunanidhi ministry	DMK		1989 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
7.	V. N. Janaki	V. N. Janaki Ramachandran ministry	AIADMK		1984 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
Interim	V. R. Nedunchezhiyan	Second Nedunchezhiyan ministry
6.	M. G. Ramachandran	Third Ramachandran ministry
5.		Second Ramachandran ministry			1980 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
4.		First Ramachandran ministry			1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
3.	M. Karunanidhi	Second Karunanidhi ministry	DMK		1971 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
2.	M. Karunanidhi	First Karunanidhi ministry			1967 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election
Interim	V. R. Nedunchezhiyan	First Nedunchezhiyan ministry
1.	C. N. Annadurai	Annadurai ministry

I, <Name of Chief Minister/Minister>, do swear in the name of God/solemnly affirm that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established, that I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India, that I will faithfully and conscientiously discharge my duties as a Minister for the State of () and that I will do right to all manner of people in accordance with the Constitution and the law without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.

• Government of Tamil Nadu
• Legislature of Tamil Nadu
• Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
• List of Tamil Nadu governmental organisations
• Tamil Nadu Government's Departments
• Government of India
• Cabinet of India

• "Council of Ministers | Tamil Nadu Government Portal". Archived from the original on 5 July 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
• Tamil Nadu ministers list 2017