Just two hours after the announcement of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's death, late in the night, in a swift political transition, her loyalist O Panneerselvam was sworn in as the new Chief Minister at a ceremony at the Raj Bhawan. For Mr Panneerselvam, 65, a staunch Jayalalithaa loyalist, this is his third stint in the top office, he had earlier stood in twice as chief minister when she had to step down. After he took oath of office, a total of 31 Ministers, all of them members of the previous Jayalalithaa cabinet, took oath in a simultaneous swearing-in. MLAs from AIADMK had a short while earlier chosen Mr Panneerselvam to lead them in the state assembly. Noticeably he took the oath of office and the oath of secrecy with the photograph of his departed leader Jayalalithaa in his shirt pocket. O Pannerselvam or OPS belongs to the Thevar caste of South India and is the first man from his caste to have a successful, high profile political career.  When his father passed away in the mid-80s, one brother received the tea stall and another, the dairy farm as inheritance. By then, OPS was fascinated by cine star MGR and his political party, AIADMK and joined politics full-time.