Six-member DMK panel to rejig party

Chennai: The DMK on Thursday constituted a six-member committee it had announced at the high-level strategy committee meet for party revamp.

The organisational shake up should go as party treasurer M.K. Stalin desires considering that almost all six members of the committee are Stalin loyalists, including former minister Thangam Thennarasu and senior functionary T.S. Kalayansundaram.

The committee’s role would be limited to redrawing the boundaries of to be formed DMK districts and assessing the office bearers’ requirement in tune with the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies post delimitation.

Also, corporations and municipalities formed in the incumbent AIADMK regime would be factored in by the committee while working out the office bearers’ requirement. One of the main tasks of the six-member panel would be providing the high command required statistics to bifurcate or trifurcate large DMK districts like Villupuram, Vellore and above all Chennai.

“Wherever the party feels necessary, the district would be divided and new officer bearers appointed by the committee,” said a senior party leader in the know of things. The committee would not identify potential office bearers. DMK president M. Karunanidhi amply indicated this in his birthday acceptance speech on June 3 when he said, “Changes would be made in the party. It was decided in the high-level strategy meet but withheld owing to my birthday. The changes will be announced shortly”

The DMK patriarch who turned 90 on Tuesday would gladden the party cadres who are fed up seeing long-serving district secretaries and demand revamp. The boundaries would be redrawn in such a manner that new office bearers would be appointed at district level without offending the existing regional satraps, most of whom are Stalin followers, the senior leader revealed.