DMK doubles district units to bring in new faces

The arrangement has cut the number of Assembly seats falling under each unit

In an exercise aimed at limiting the area of control under its district secretaries and create space for new faces, the DMK leadership on Monday announced the creation of 65 district units, almost double the number of the existing units.

In a statement, DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan said the decision was based on the recommendations of the six-member committee comprising the former minister, Thangam Thennarasu, advocate K.S. Radhakrishnan, the former MLA, P.S. Thiruvengadam, and three others.

The new arrangement has drastically reduced the number of Assembly constituencies falling under each unit, ranging from six to two. Mr. Anbazhagan said the name of city units and union units to be covered under each district would be announced later.

Earlier, there were two units in Chennai district. Now, there will be four districts: south, north, east and west.

No more powerful

Party sources said the creation of three new district units each out of Villupuram and Vellore districts would reduce the clout of the former minister, K. Ponmudi, and Gandhi, the two powerful district secretaries.

Similarly, the bifurcation of Tiruchi into north and south district units is also important because another former minister K.N. Nehru remained an unquestionable leader of the unified district secretary.

So long as he was alive, Veerapandi S. Arumugam controlled the party organisation in Salem district, and even the high command would not dare to interfere with his style of functioning. Now, three units have been carved out of the district.

Tirunelveli district, the turf of power struggle between V. Karuppasamy Pandian and the former Speaker, R. Avudaiappan, has been bifurcated into two.

Virudhunagar, a district under the control of the former minister, K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, has also been divided into two. The same is the case with Tuticorin and Kanyakumari.

In the western region, Coimbatore district unit and city unit have been bifurcated into two each. However, small districts such as Sivaganga, Tiruvarur and Dharamapuri have been left untouched.