Chennai, Jan. 2: The drumbeat to make V.K. Sasikala the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has grown so loud that the state government's press has stopped printing the official calendar for 2017.

If chief minister O. Panneerselvam is replaced by Sasikala, known as Chinnamma and anointed as AIADMKgeneral secretary last week, the new calendar would need to carry the photograph of the new chief minister.

A strong indication of a possible power shift was made by Lok Sabha deputy speaker M. Thambidurai today. He urged "respected Chinnamma to shoulder the responsibility of the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, to take forward the party and to carry on the governance of Tamil Nadu for the welfare of the people of Tamil Nadu".

Thambidurai said Sasikala was eminently suited for the job as "she has the intelligence, capacity and love for the people, love and care for the party cadres as Puratchi Thalaivi Amma (the late Jayalalithaa) had."

Thambidurai, who is also the party propaganda secretary, said in a statement that the people of the country had never accepted the concept of two power centres - one for the party and the other for the government.

"History has shown that some governments had been pushed to several hurdles and were incapable on delivering promises. Such governments have lost their credibility among the people when the leadership of the party and the leadership of the government was in the hands of two different persons," he contended.

To drive home this point, Thambidurai in a chat with reporters attributed the troubles of the Samjawadi Party in Uttar Pradesh to the presence of dual power centres with Akhilesh Yadav being chief minister and his father running the party.

"It is for this reason we want Chinnamma to be both party leader and chief minister," he said.

Thambidurai handed over his statement to Sasikala personally and hoped that she would respond positively. He also said that a unified command was necessary for the party to perform well in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Already a host of ministers from the OPS cabinet have openly urged Sasikala to take over as chief minister with the incumbent looking on in silence.

Party insiders say that Panneerselvam would readily give in without a fight since when he was first chosen as stand-in chief minister by Jayalalithaa in 2001, it was at the behest of the Sasikala family. "He is too loyal to challenge the move as long he is accommodated in the cabinet headed by Sasikala," said a senior MLA.

Sasikala is also under pressure from her family to take over the mantle as it could provide her some protection from the money-laundering case against businessman Shekar Reddy, said to have links to the family.

AIADMK sources indicated that Sasikala would like to rejig the present cabinet by giving more representation to Gounders, Dalits and Vanniyars, who, in spite of a large number of MLAs, have few ministers.