Amid speculation on a Cabinet reshuffle, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa has reposed faith in five ministers, her trusted party seniors, led by Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, to conduct the AIADMK organisational polls.
On Friday, Ms. Jayalalithaa released the list of party leaders who will be in charge of the five regions and districts. Mr. Panneerselvam will oversee the elections in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Theni, his home district.
Electricity Minister Natham R. Viswanathan will be in charge of the elections in the southern districts, Housing Minister R. Vaithilingam in central districts, Highways Minister Edapadi K. Palaniswami in western districts and Higher Education Minister P. Palaniappan in north-western districts. Each of them will look after 10 district units in the 14-phase polls beginning this month.
While the five seniors have also retained their home districts, the elections to the district units will be supervised by 50 leaders, including Ministers, MPs, MLAs, trade union leaders and chairmen of various boards. Interestingly, none of them will get to oversee elections in their home turf, say party sources.
For instance, Social Welfare Minister B. Valarmathi of Chennai will be in charge of Cuddalore west and Deputy Speaker Pollachi V. Jayaraman will be in charge of south Chennai.
From among the party veterans, only E. Madhusudhanan and C. Ponnaiyan find a place on the list. The other long-time loyalists of Ms. Jayalalithaa and former ministers such as D. Jayakumar, Nainar Nagendran and K.A. Sengottaiyan do not figure on the list.
With the AIADMK emerging as the third largest party in the Lok Sabha, the next crop of leaders has been identified and given responsibility, the sources say. Ministers R. Kamaraj (Puducherry), P. Thangamani (New Delhi), V. Senthil Balaji (Andhra Pradesh), Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy (Karnataka), S.P. Velumani (Kerala), R.B. Udayakumar (Maharashtra) and C. Vijayabaskar (Andaman) will be in charge of the elections in the States and Union Territories. Each one will have one MP to assist him.
