Welcome to this week’s Powertrip, a political newsletter exclusively curated for TNM and NL subscribers by Dhanya Rajendran, Shabbir Ahmed, and Pooja Prasanna. The rare move of appointing TDP leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju as the next Governor of Goa is an indication of the bonhomie between alliance partners, the BJP and TDP. Many bureaucrats in Tamil Nadu are unhappy with the state government’s move to appoint senior IAS officers as its spokespersons to streamline media communications.

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The TDP-BJP alliance relationship is at its peak

Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, a veteran TDP leader and former civil aviation minister, has been named the next Governor of Goa. This is a rare move as the BJP does not usually give the Raj Bhavan to its allies and reserves it for its own leaders or retired bureaucrats close to the party.

Powertrip had told you in April 2025 itself that the TDP has pitched for Gajapathi Raju as a Governor and that the BJP has asked for Rajya Sabha seats in return. Though at the time Annamalai was touted to get the Rajya Sabha seat, it was eventually given to Andhra Pradesh BJP leader P Venkata Satyanarayana. TDP sources now tell us that the party will have to give maybe one or two more Rajya Sabha seats to the BJP for the coveted Governor post. Around four seats will fall vacant in about a year and that’s when the TDP will fulfil its side of the bargain.

On another note, the TDP is super happy with the BJP. Those we spoke to said the alliance harmony is at its peak. PM Modi inviting Nara Lokesh and family to his house and also praising him at the International Yoga Day event has made the TDP feel respected in the alliance.

Spokesperson appointments and bureaucracy’s disappointment

For the first time in the history of Tamil Nadu, the government has appointed senior IAS officers as its spokespersons. Predictably, the move has not gone down well among the bureaucracy. The appointment of officers like J Radhakrishnan, Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Dheeraj Kumar, and P Amudha has raised quite a few eyebrows in bureaucratic circles.

The government believes that fielding senior IAS officers to handle the media will help streamline communication.

The buzz in the corridors of Fort St George is that not everyone is happy with the move – except journalists, who are ready with questions.

Within the bureaucracy, the murmurs are: when the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) already acts as a bridge between government departments and media outlets and journalists, what was the need to appoint spokespersons?

The designated senior IAS officers have been allocated subjects, so department secretaries now feel that it will become routine to prepare reports and notes for them as well. The IAS officers heading various departments have no issues when a Minister addresses the issues relating to their departments. 

There is a political angle as well. The officers who have been appointed are known as crisis managers. Each of them has earned a reputation for being on the ground during crises like the tsunami, Chennai floods, cyclones, Covid and other disasters, and they have earned the goodwill of the public. The government wants to leverage this goodwill to control the media narrative.

A section of the bureaucracy is surprised that the government has taken such a step during an election year, fearing that this may create confusion within the system.

Not only that, the announcement has also stunned DMK spokespersons who appear on Tamil and English TV debates on a daily basis. They feel that the IAS officers will steal the limelight, that their words will be taken at face value by media houses, and that the task of defending the government and the party will no longer be the same.

Opposition party leader Edappadi K Palaniswami has issued a warning that if IAS officers are going to misrepresent facts to protect the government, then the AIADMK will not spare them if it comes back to power.

Sources say a few bureaucrats had reached out to the AIADMK seeking their intervention and this is why EPS was swift with his response.

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