Brushing aside protests by sections of dissidents against the nomination of a couple of party candidates in the district, the DMK’s Tiruchi district unit put up a show of unity at a district-level coordination meet with alliance partners here on Saturday.
While the former Minister N. Selvaraj, who has been denied a ticket this time, was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting, party district strongman K.N. Nehru and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, the party candidate for Tiruverumbur, displayed much bonhomie at the meet which sought to give a push to the field-level campaign of the alliance.
Over the past few days, there were protests against Mr. Mahesh’s nomination and S. Ganesan in Manachanallur, but there was no discordant note the meeting attended by office bearers of alliance partners including K.M. Khader Mohideen, State president, IUML.
The meeting drew much attention as the rise of the Mr. Mahesh, considered a close associate of party treasurer M.K. Stalin, and the denial of the ticket to Mr. Selvaraj had signalled a change in the equations in the Tiruchi district unit of the party. Mr. Selvaraj had lost in Manachanallur in the 2011 election.
The nomination of Mr. Mahesh came as a surprise as he had sought the party ticket only for Tiruchi East constituency.
The party has gone the extra mile to accommodate him in neighbouring Tiruverumbur as it had to allot the Tiruchi East seat to the Congress.
Grandson of Anbil Dharmalingam and son of Anbil Poyyamozhi, both of whom were considered close to the party high command, Mr. Mahesh is seen as the youthful face of the party in the district especially after he endeared himself to Mr. Stalin and became part of his inner circle.
Although Mr. Nehru appeared to be conscious of the media glare and went out of the way to pose for pictures along with Mr. Mahesh, he made sure that all sections of the party office-bearers were kept in good humour and urged the cadre to work hard for the victory of the alliance candidates in all the nine constituencies.
The DMK’s election manifesto would be the “super hero”, he said and urged the cadre to take it to every household.
Mr. Mahesh reciprocated the sentiment saying that party president M. Karunanidhi and Mr. Stalin had selected the candidates and handed over them to Mr. Nehru to ensure their victory.
