DMK general council meet on September 9

Chennai: The much-delayed General Council of the DMK to elect a new general secretary and treasurer has been at last called for September 9, more than five months after it was earlier scheduled and cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The meeting would be held through video conference on Thursday, September 9, an announcement from the party President M K Stalin said on Tuesday, putting to rest all resentments within the party over the extraordinary delay in convening the crucial general council.

Earlier, it was called for March 29 to elect the new general secretary to fill in the vacancy created by the demise of K Anbazhagan at the age of 97 on March 7. Anbazhagan had been the general secretary of the party for 43 years.

Since Durai Murugan, who is the treasurer of the party, aspired for the post of general secretary, the meeting was also scheduled to elect a new treasurer. To facilitate his election, Durai Murugan had resigned his treasurer post, which was also accepted by the party.

Just as the countdown for the meeting start, Coronavirus broke out in the country, forcing the DMK leadership to cancel all party meetings and programmes till March 31. After that, the meeting could not be held as the lockdown prohibited all gatherings, including political congregations. And the DMK announced that Durai Murugan would continue as treasurer.

In the meantime, though the DMK’s other meetings were held through video conference with Stalin regularly interacting with his functionaries, the delay in holding the general council was causing some resentment within the party.

A Tamil newspaper even carried a story that Durai Murugan was disillusioned over not being elevated to the post of general secretary and was planning to defect, impelling Durai Murugan to issue a statement denying any such plans.

Though Durai Murugan’s elevation was envisaged to happen without a hitch, filling up the treasurer post that would fall vacant because of that became an issue for the DMK as there were reportedly three aspirants for it. Senior leader T R Baalu, E V Velu and A Raja are said to be the contenders for the post.

Party leadership is now said to be engaged in arriving at a compromise between the three and selecting one of them unanimously at the General Council.

Perhaps with a view to sort that out, Stalin has called for a district secretaries meeting on Thursday, September 3 at 10.30 am, also through video conferencing.

After both the meetings, the party is said to gear up for the elections in 2021.