The ruling AIADMK on Wednesday announced the re-organisation of district units in Chennai.
Earlier, there were five district units. The number has now gone up to eight. The new units were carved out of the North Chennai (South) and South Chennai (North and South) units. Each district secretary would have two Assembly constituencies to look after.
The three new district secretaries are Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar, organising secretary Adhi Rajaram and former Velachery legislator M.K. Ashok. They will be in charge of the district units of North Chennai (South-East), North Chennai (South-West) and South Chennai (South-East) respectively, according to a press release issued by coordinator-Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and co-coordinator-Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
The existing three functionaries, N. Balaganga, B. Sathyanarayanan and V.N. Ravi, will hereafter be the district secretaries for North Chennai (South-West), South Chennai (North-West) and South Chennai (South-South).
R.S. Rajesh — North Chennai (North-East) and T.G. Venkatesh Babu — North Chennai (North-West) were left untouched in the latest exercise.
Mr. Jayakumar was appointed the district secretary for the undivided North Chennai unit in 2000 and 2010. In both the 2001 and 2011 Assembly elections, the party performed well in the northern parts of the city.
Mr. Rajaram, who was made the secretary of the South Chennai unit in November 1994, became a controversial figure when his name figured as a key accused in a case of assault concerning advocate K.M. Vijayan, who ran a legal battle against the State government’s policy of 69% quota. He was acquitted by a trial court in October 1996 which was confirmed by the Madras High Court in August 2012. During the 2006 Assembly election, he lost to DMK leader M.K. Stalin in Thousand Lights. Mr Balaganga, who was Central Chennai district secretary during 2001-06, became the North Chennai (South) district secretary in 2011. He was once Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board.
