VK Sasikala Natarajan, a close aide of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who took over as AIADMK General Secretary in December, is likely to take over as Tamil Nadu CM next week.

A meeting of AIADMK MLAs likely to elect new legislative leader is scheduled to take place tomorrow at their party headquarters.While Sasikala had taken over as the general secretary, Finance Minister O Panneerselvam was appointed as chief minister of state after the demise ex-Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa.

The development comes a day after Sasikala appointed senior leaders, including some former ministers and a former Mayor, to key party posts.reversing the appointments made by Jayalalithaa, three top bureaucrats of the state government have been asked to resign by CMO.

While a senior AIADMK leader said the decision to remove Jayalalithaa loyalists was taken by party chief V K Sasikala and her husband M Natarajan, sources close to Panneerselvam said he was merely obeying the orders from the party considering various factors including unity in party as well as to avoid multiple power centres at the top of administration. The AIADMK leader said it was Natarajan, once a political mentor of late Jayalalithaa after M G Ramachandran’s death and known for his political talents, has suggested these crucial changes at the helm of the government. ”

“A retired IAS officer, who served as the Officer on Special Duty and was thrown out by Jayalalithaa in 2011 for his close links with Natarajan, may be one of the faces to replace Sheela Balakrishnan, Venkataramanan and Ramalingam. Not just these three, the entire CMO is likely to be restructured and the only official likely to retain the post may be Shiv Das Meena IAS,” he said