Crucial AIADMK council meet on Thursday

Chennai: The stage is set for the crucial general council and executive committee meeting of the ruling AI­ADMK at suburban Vanagaram on Thursday amidst interesting developments that point to a four-corner contest in Tamil Nadu in the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Chief minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa is likely to spell out the poll strategy even as reports from the districts place her party way ahead of the others in the race.

Apart from discussing the state and national issues, besides the Parl­iament poll, the AIA­D­MK meet is also expected to pass resolutions tha­nking the Yercaud voters for its win in the recent Assembly by-election and slamming the Con­gress-led regime at the Centre for the economic mess, particularly the many debilitating decisions hurting the state.

The handling of the Sri Lankan Tamil issue and the attacks on TN fishermen are also expected to figure in the huge session, which is also exp­ected to pass an unanimous resolution authorising party supremo Jayalalithaa to take ap­pr­opriate decisions reg­arding the poll allies. The party presently has the two communist parties as allies.

As things appear now, apart from the AIADMK alliance that also incl­udes Sarath Kumar’s AISMK, AIFB and Ind­ian Democratic Party, the rival DMK group co­mprising the Muslim League and VCK and the emerging ‘third front’ of BJP-DMDK-PMK-MD­MK are in the fray. The Congress looks lost, alone as the fourth player.

Jayalalithaa will chair her party’s Thu­rsday meet, which will be presided over by party presidium chairman E. Madhu­sud­hanan.

She has been exhorting her cadres to work for the AIADMK victory in all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and the one seat in Puducherry.  

A huge arch has been erected at the entrance of the venue, where the party functionaries have reportedly planned to hold an exhibition on the achievements of Jay­a­lalithaa during the two-and-a-half years of her rule.