Campaign not going in the right direction, say AIADMK men

District secretary counters charge

With only a day left for the Lok Sabha election campaign to conclude all is not right in the AIADMK camp here.

Or so it appears. The AIADMK camp never presented a united face before the voters, say partymen who place the blame at the doorsteps of the Coimbatore District Secretary and Mayor S.M. Velusamy. Councillors, Members of the Legislative Assembly and partymen, who wished to remain anonymous, said that Mr. Velusamy, who is one of the two campaign managers, was not actively involved in the campaign because he had not yet reconciled to the fact that candidate, P. Nagarajan, was not a man of his choice.

He continued to nurture a suspicion and grudge that Mr. Nagarajan had bypassed him to secure the AIADMK candidature.

The Mayor was available only at the start of the campaign and during photo opportunities to paint a picture as though he was completely part of the campaign.

There was no coordination among the AIADMK MLAs, Councillors and the party officials’ in-charge of the campaign.

The partymen said that Mr. Velusamy, who ought to have led from the front, was not only absent in campaigns but had also failed to interact with the booth-level functionaries and the workers who went campaigning, door-to-door.

The state of affairs at the party was completely in disarray. But it ought to have been an easy affair as the AIADMK had 80 Councillors and five MLAs in the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency.

Countering the charge, Singanallur MLA R. Chinnasamy said that the campaign was on the right track and as a campaign manager it was impossible for the Mayor and District Secretary Mr. Velusamy to be present in all the campaigns.

Mr. Velusamy said that the charges levelled against him were frivolous and made with the ulterior motive of bringing him disrepute. As a campaign manager, he cannot be expected to go along with the candidate, Mr. Nagarajan.

He had to organise campaigns, chart tour plans, work out the logistics and also take care of the accounts. His job was to organise the campaign, he said and added that in the respective Assembly segments, he had asked the MLAs to go along with the candidate.

The campaign was proceeding as per plan and he was satisfied with the result, he added.