Chennai: AIADMK legislators Sunday elected Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam to succeed the jailed J. Jayalalithaa as Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister.

A day after a special court in Bangalore unseated AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa as Tamil Nadu chief minister by sentencing her to four years imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case, she intimated her senior party colleagues at the Parappana Aghrahara jail in Bangalore that her choice of successor is none other than her trusted loyalist O Panneerselvam.

Four erstwhile cabinet colleagues – Panneerselvam, Natham R Vishwanathan, R Vaithilingam and Edappady Palanichami – met her at the prison in the morning to apprise her of the developments that followed her imprisonment.

She handed over a list of names of MLAs to Panneerselvam who would be sworn in as cabinet ministers under his leadership.