On day one in office, new Chief Minister Edapaddi Palanisamy begins where Amma left – fulfilling poll promises with a slew of welfare programmes aimed at winning over the masses at present cut up with him and his group of AIADMK for “its tactics in retaining MLAs and winning trust vote in Assembly”

Edappadi Palanisamy is a full-fledged Chief Minister unlike O Panneerselvam, who was as tentative as ever and as temporary looking and sounding as ever. OPS never dared to sit in the same chair as revered Amma, but Palanisamy had no such qualms as he had just won the vote of confidence of the assembly and got confirmed in the job that all his 122 MLAs voted him for only on Sunday.

So, Monday first day, first show for EPS was one full of action. He came, he entered and he conquered – the same room that chief minister J Jayalalithaa had occupied and took seemingly decisive decisions – to further carry forward Amma’s legacy and Amma’s welfare schemes.

So, it was the first dose of populist schemes from the chief minister – half the price of a two-wheeler for working women, doubling the unemployment dole, closing down 500 TASMAC shops and reaching drought relief to the farmers and a few other programmes that were sold to the people under Brand Amma when Jayalalithaa was at the helm of affairs.

EPS on Monday signed five files, each launching programmes promised by Jayalalithaa in the AIADMK election manifesto for 2016 general elections in Tamil Nadu.

“My top priority,” ESP said is to enable the farmers get drought relief at the earliest. He was briefing media persons inside the CM chambers – also a first a regime of AIADMK (Amma) as no one dared to enter her chambers unless invited. And Jayalalithaa kept the media at several arms distance and gave no interviews in the past several years, save for one with a ‘tamed Arnab Goswami” who was mamming her like there was no tomorrow. She was in her Poes Garden residence and he covering and shivering in his own studios in Mumbai.

But EPS realized that he needed the media to be on his side, as there is a swell of public anger against his government, propped up by Sasikala who is largely perceived to be a villain by the masses. This is also the reason for a spate of populist schemes in the hope of buying peace with the people, who are protesting against the manner in which the party and the government were “seemingly hijacked” by Sasikala and her team.

The one reason why he launched into Amma’s welfare schemes was only this: to tell Tamil Nadu people that it was only Amma’s government that he was running. Which is why, he began delivering on the poll promises made by Jayalalithaa in the manifesto for 2016 general elections in Tamil Nadu.

First was drought relief and then subsidy for two-wheelers for working women, coming good on the promise made by Amma. The government will give half of the price of the two wheeler, subject to a maximum of Rs 25000 per working women, to one lakh women in one year.The whole scheme is expected to cost Rs 200 crore per annum.

Palanisamy also signed orders for increasing financial assistance to pregnant women from Rs.12,000 to Rs.18,000. The scheme is designed to benefit 600,000 pregnant women at an outlay of Rs.360 crore per annum.

He doubled the monthly allowance to unemployed people – Rs.200 per month for 10th standard fail; Rs.300 (10th standard pass); Rs.400 (12th standard fail); Rs.600 (graduates and post graduates). Then he gave clearance to build 5,000 houses for fishermen at a cost of Rs 85 crore per annum.