Jayalalithaa revamps AIADMK party apparatus

Chennai: With Opposition parties still dilly-dallying on forging electoral ties, AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, backed by a strong cadre force, has revamped the party apparatus ahead of the Assembly elections due for next year, thus gearing up her party for the battle royal.

She had already sounded the poll bugle asking her party members to repeat the victory, more particularly the 2014 performance in which the AIADMK won 37 out of 39 Lok Sabha seats. The present move will take the campaign to the next level, particularly in retaining  power in the state by handsomely winning the polls.

Jayalalithaa named new secretaries for her party’s district units across the State, including Chennai city, putting in place a mechanism to fight the elections from all the 234 Assembly constituencies.

Significantly, former legislator and AIADMK north Chennai strongman P. Vetrivel, who resigned from the R.K. Nagar constituency to facilitate Jayalalithaa to contest, replaces T.G. Venkatesh Babu, Lok Sabha MP (North Chennai).

On Wednesday, she announced the names of 50 district secretaries and other key functionaries who have been elected in party organisational polls. The list of new party functionaries was released by AIADMK mouthpiece Dr Namadhu MGR.

In Chennai apart from Vetrivel, K.S. Srinivasan has replaced a former MP, Balaganga as North Chennai (South unit) district secretary. In South Chennai (North Unit) ‘T Nagar’ B Sathiya, (district Jayalalithaa Peravai treasurer and Chennai Corporation councillor) replaces V.P. Kalairajan. G. Senthamizhan (Saidapet MLA) who was briefly the information minister in 2011 has been named South Chennai (South Unit) district secretary replacing Virugai V.N. Ravi.

Jayalalithaa said the new office-bearers were elected for their respective posts through intra-party elections and asked AIADMK workers to extend their full cooperation to them.