EPS to meet dist secretaries on Friday

A party press release said that apart from district secretaries, headquarters secretaries of the party would also attend the consultative meeting on August 9 at the party headquarters, ‘Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Maligai,’ on Lloyds Road in Chennai.

The meeting, it is speculated, will be a forerunner to the general council of the party that Palaniswami now plans to convene to pre-empt any moves by two ousted general secretaries of the party V K Sasikala and O Panneerselvam.

Since the cases filed by both Sasikala and Panneerselvam claiming to be general secretaries of the party were pending in courts, Palaniswami, it is learnt, is not prepared to take any chances. So, he now plans to get his election as general secretary ratified at a general council so that no one else could stake claim for the post citing earlier elections to the post.

As reported, the preliminary work for convening the general council has already begun with the distribution of new identity cards to party cadre and functionaries. It is learnt that oral instructions had been given to issue the new cards only to those loyal to Palaniswami.