Chennai, June 19: The Congress-led Union government’s decision to whittle down divestment of public sector units has come as a shot in the arm for Jayalalithaa, who has promptly rewarded her loyalists with plum posts in PSUs.

Seeking to boost the morale of ADMK cadre after last month’s Lok Sabha election rout, the Tamil Nadu chief minister today appointed 15 party functionaries as chairpersons of various government bodies.

In reverting to an earlier practice of rehabilitating party faithful, Jayalalithaa is trying to boost the sagging morale of ADMK cadre. Six party candidates who lost the May polls have been handed jobs on public sector boards and undertakings; others rewarded are former MPs who were denied tickets last month or district secretaries.

The practice of appointing party functionaries to top PSU jobs has been criticised before as it leads to “excessive administrative expenditure through lavish spending, nepotism and corruption”. Only a few key public sector bodies like the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board have had party nominees as chairpersons so far.

But ADMK chief Jayalalithaa wants party functionaries to know that more appointments to public sector boards or corporations might be in the offing lest they feel let down after having “worked very hard” for the Lok Sabha polls, a party source said.

Edapadi K. Palanichamy, who lost the Tiruchengode Lok Sabha election, has been made chairman of the Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation while K. Thangamuthu, who lost the Thanjavur seat, has been appointed chairman of the Tamil Nadu Text Book Corporation. R. Amrithaganesan, who lost from Tirunelveli, is now the chairman of the Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corporation.

Adhi Rajaram, an influential leader from south Chennai and a district unit secretary, has been made chairman of the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation.