Whether it is M.K. Stalin of the DMK or Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK, leaders across the political spectrum have eased into election mode, fighting for the attention of people.
The last few weeks have seen regular activities being scaled up by political parties but no clarity has emerged yet on who would join which front for the upcoming Assembly polls.
The PMK in particular has taken the lead, having already completed four regional conferences since declaring Dr. Anbumani as chief ministerial candidate. “We have three more conferences to go, with Madurai coming up next. We will culminate this campaign with a State conference in January,” he said.
The party began creating a comprehensive database of party youth during the Lok Sabha elections concentrating on the Dharmapuri constituency. This process, for majority of the districts, is now complete. The party is set to launch an exclusive application to help cadre connect with the leadership.
In the DMK, major changes have been introduced in the format of public meetings being addressed by Mr. Stalin. “Till recently, the idea to organise meetings and conferences were entirely driven by district units. District secretaries took the lead in arrangement. Now, the ideas flow from Mr. Stalin’s core team and it gets implemented by the district units,” said a member of the team managing Mr. Stalin’s publicity.
Stage arrangements have seen a sea change with the podium brought to centre stage and focus being maintained on Mr. Stalin all through. Sources said Mr. Stalin’s son-in-law, Sabarish, plays an important role in the publicity team. “The team functions as two wings. One takes care of Mr. Stalin’s propaganda and the other DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s publicity. This is reflected in the social media drive you now see,” said a leader.
On the other hand, the MDMK led by Vaiko is gearing up to focus on specific dates to intensify its campaign. The party is planning to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Dravidian movement in a big way starting September. Party sources said Mr. Vaiko will begin multiple campaigns on specific issues starting September.
