Earlier, the DMK that stuck to hierarchy never breached the seniority code and more often than not the senior most leader in the district was made the district secretary
Chennai: In an unprecedented revamp of the organizational structure, the DMK appointed youth and leaders who came from other parties as district secretaries, whose composition has been made diverse through the inclusion of Dalits, Muslims and people from all communities.
As a traditional party, the DMK of yore would have just one district unit with a secretary in every revenue district, which slowly started changing with bifurcations and trifurcations happening and more local leaders getting leadership roles.
Now the structure has been changed further with the number of party districts increased to 78 – perhaps in a bid to keep pace with rival parties like the AIADMK that has 90 districts and the nascent Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) forming 120 party districts – and the appointment of juniors as secretaries.
Earlier, the DMK that stuck to hierarchy never breached the seniority code and more often than not the senior most leader in the district was made the district secretary. Though that trend slowly changed, now youth are getting opportunities to lead the party at the local level.
Among the major changes in the organization announced on Thursday were the formation of four new districts and appointment of four new secretaries and the changing of four old district secretaries, which was also not heard of traditionally with secretaries continuing for years in the post.
One major appointment of the DMK that had caused a flutter within the AIADMK is that of Thoppu Venkatachalam, a former AIADMK Minister, as secretary in Erode. The move is seen as one of the various steps taken by the DMK to gain popularity in the western region of the State that was earlier seen as an AIADMK bastion.
The appointment of Lakshmanan as secretary in Villupuram district is also seen as a strategic move to win over the Vanniyar belt, considered to be a weak link of the DMK. Lakshmanan who came over to the DMK from the AIADMK and won the Assembly election belongs to the Vanniyar community.
Muslims have been given more representation among the district secretaries as Abdul Wahab in Tirunelveli Central and Gingee Masthan in Villupuram North have taken charge of the party leadership and a member of the Badaga community, K M Raju, is now in charge of the DMK in Nilgiris district.
A young Mayor Tiruppur Dinesh is the new secretary for the area covering two Assembly constituencies, and in Tiruvallur the post of district secretary has gone to a Dalit leader, Ramesh Raj, while in Thanjavur, the post has been given to a member of the Vellalar community, Palanivel.
