In a sign of things to come, the DMK on Friday removed three district secretaries from their posts, ostensibly for not cooperating with candidates fielded by the party and its allies during the Assembly elections.
The list included a heavyweight in S. Gandhiselvan, who was former Union Minister of State for Health and the secretary of the party’s Namakkal East district unit.
M. Veeragopal of the party’s Coimbatore Urban North district and P.K. Durairaj of Tirunelveli West district were the other two secretaries.
A senior party leader said all three were “known culprits” who did not properly coordinate during the elections and led to the defeat of candidates in their respective areas.
In fact, the DMK high command would soon be forming a special team to investigate complaints against several district secretaries. “In at least 20 constituencies, the complaints have been identical. Very soon, a team would be visiting several districts to investigate the complaints,” the leader said.
Mr. Gandhiselvan’s removal came as a shock to the Namakkal DMK. Not only was he a senior member of the party but also considered close to DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin.
Mr. Gandhiselvan, who was vying for a ticket to contest from the Namakkal constituency, was taken aback when it was allotted to the Congress. Later, he tried for a seat in the Namakkal West district, which too the party did not entertain.
Loss of Rasipuram
What caused much embarrassment to the DMK was the defeat of V. P. Duraisamy, former Assembly Deputy Speaker and deputy general secretary of the party in his native Rasipuram (Reserved) constituency by a margin of 9,631 votes. Mr. Duraisamy was said to have squared blamed the district leadership for his defeat. It was this complaint which sealed Gandhiselvan’s fate, say senior party functionaries.
In Mr. Veeragopal’s case, the action came after a defeated candidate, Meena Loganathan, who was a councillor in Coimbatore Corporation, openly complained about his non-cooperation at the party’s State executive committee meeting held soon after the polls.
Ms. Loganathan said she had told the leadership how the North Urban District secretary had not worked wholeheartedly and how his actions had led to her defeat. Ms. Loganathan lost the Coimbatore North Assembly seat by 7,724 votes.
‘Not a surprise’
In Tirunelveli, party sources added that the removal of Mr. Durairaj was not a surprise. Of the four Assembly segments falling under the Tirunelveli West district jurisdiction, the DMK managed to win just one. Though the DMK successfully wooed K. Krishnasamy-led Puthiya Thamizhagam into its alliance, the combine tasted bitter defeat in the reserved segments of Vasudevanallur and Sankarankovil, where the ruling AIADMK candidates registered resounding victories.
While AIADMK’s V.M. Rajalakshmi won by a margin of over 14,000 votes at Sankarankovil and went on to become the Minister for Adi Dravida Welfare, the ruling party’s A. Manoharan virtually annihilated PT’s K. Anbazhagan by over 18,000 votes, the highest margin in the district.
Even in Kadayanallur where the DMK-friendly Muslim voters are the ‘deciding factor’, the Indian Union Muslim League candidate in the DMK-led front managed to win the battle of ballots by a narrow margin of just 1,194 votes.
While M. Muthusamy will be in charge of Coimbatore Urban North, Namakkal East will be taken care of by Bar. Elangovan. In Tirunelveli, S.V. Padmanabhan would hold the post.
