Fierce battles and compromises in DMK

January 04, 2015 11:50 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 06:15 pm IST - CHENNAI:

Organisational polls in the DMK fiercely fought at lower levels have also given room for compromises and backroom politics when it reached the level of district secretaries. When it comes to the posts of president, general secretary and treasurer, they were always elected unopposed.

The party since its inception in 1949 has been having only a general secretary at the top-most level, a position held by only the party founder and late Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai and later V.R. Nedunchezhian till 1969.

In 1956 at the famous DMK Tiruchi conference, Anna had asked Navalar, as Nedunchezhian was called, through his now famous welcome utterance, “Thambi vaa, Thalamai Thaanga vaa (brother come and grace the leadership) ,” to take over the post of general secretary.

“The president’s post was created as a compromise formula to mollify V.R. Nedunchezhian, who nurtured the ambition to become the Chief Minister after Anna’s death in 1969. An amendment was made to the party constitution and Nedunchezhian was made the general secretary and Mr Karunanidhi became the president,” said a senior leader of the party.

Today probably the only two living leaders, who attended the party launch meeting held at Robinson Park at Royapuram in 1949, are Mr. Karunanidhi and Mr. Anbazhagan.

Mr. Anbazhagan, nominated as the labour wing secretary of the party, became the general secretary in 1977 after V.R. Nedunchezhian quit the DMK and joined the AIADMK launched by MGR. Since then, the party veteran Tamil scholar been retaining the post.

The party used to have an elected administrative council before it paved way for the constitution of the high-level policy planning committee.

In the DMK, the district secretaries called the shots and the value attached to the post was narrated by late Murasoli Maran during a general council meeting.

“When late Anbil Dharmalingam, secretary of Tiruchi district, was produced in a court, he proudly declared that his position was akin to that of the district magistrate,” Maran said reiterating his argument for strengthening the position of district secretaries.

But the expulsion of Vaiko in 1993 and the decision of many district secretaries to rally behind him forced the DMK high-command to intervene and control the election of district secretaries.

As every district secretary controlled a vast turf, virtually shutting the doors for the entry of new faces, the DMK carved out new district units recently, increasing their number to 65.

Even then there were allegations that women, Dalits and a few communities were not given proper representation.

Mr. Karunanidhi, however, clarified that every community had its share in the organisation while admitting that one woman and two Dalits alone could become district secretaries now.

Besides elected leaders, the party will have three deputy general secretaries—one Dalit, one woman and a general candidate.

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