A day after the AIADMK’s executive committee decided to amend the mode of election for the posts of coordinator and co-coordinator, the party on Thursday announced the schedule for organisational elections, including the two posts.
Hours after the party’s move, V.K. Sasikala, former interim general secretary of the party, in a statement, vowed that she would work relentlessly to turn the party “again into a movement of workers.”
As per the schedule drawn up by the party, December 7 will be the date of polling for the posts of coordinator and co-coordinator.
Nominations will be accepted on Friday and Saturday (December 3 and 4). The counting of votes and declaration of results will take place on December 8. Former Ministers C. Ponnaiyan and Pollachi V. Jayaraman have been named election officers, according to a release issued by the party.
The polls for functionaries at the level of branches in panchayat unions and wards of all urban local bodies will be conducted in two phases during December 13 to 23.
For the 35 district units, the poll will be on December 13 and 14, and for the remaining 40, on December 22 and 23.
In her statement, Ms. Sasikala expressed her concern over, what she called, the present plight of the party, and said ever since the party was “used for the likes and dislikes of individuals,” its esteem had “gone down.” The workers had been “forgotten.”
Pointing out that a number of cadres were “yearning” for the return of the party to its past glory, she told them not to get disheartened and expressed hope that it would be “set right.”
‘Release MLACDS funds’
The AIADMK co-coordinator and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, on Thursday demanded that funds under the Member of Legislative Assembly Constituency Development Scheme (MLACDS) be released immediately.
In a statement, he said that ordinarily, the release of funds under the scheme would take place during August. But, even now, this had not been done yet.
In a series of tweets, AMMK general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran deplored the reported move of the refusal of pay to those employees of the State electricity utility who had not taken the vaccination against COVID-19.