The ruling AIADMK, which removed Dairy Development Minister K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji as secretary of the party's Virudhunagar district unit about three months ago, on Friday made him in charge of the district unit till the appointment of a full-fledged district secretary.
This was announced in a release issued by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, co-coordinator and coordinator of the party respectively.
Mr. Rajenthra Bhalajiwas stripped of the district secretary post in late March after he posted a controversial tweet on his handle. The tweet, which was later deleted, bordered on providing a communal angle to the task of tackling the situation in the light of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
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In the months preceding his removal from the post, the Minister had made several statements, adopting a posture of being an “extreme Hindu.” The DMK went to the extent of petitioning Governor Banwarilal Purohit, seeking his dismissal from the Cabinet, a stand endorsed by other parties including the Congress. However, of late, he is one of the Ministers being fielded by the party to rebut criticism of the DMK president M.K. Stalin on issues concerning COVID-19 management. A few hours after the party made him in charge of Virudhunagar, Mr. Rajenthra Bhalaji issued a statement, criticising Mr. Stalin on the Sattankulam custodial death case.
As far as the Virudhunagar district unit was concerned, there were expectations among members of the party in the district over the last few weeks regarding the bifurcation of the organisation unit. A leader of the party from the district felt that the development, which signalled that the revamping of the district unit had been kept in abeyance, might turn out to be a “dampener.”
A veteran from a neighbouring district, who held the post of secretary of his district on four occasions at different points of time, said though it was not unusual in the party for any functionary getting back to his or her earlier position after a considerable gap of time, the case of Mr. Rajenthra Bhalaji appeared to be different from others as somebody else would have been appointed normally in the intervening period. In this case, no one looked after the district.
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However, a senior leader said that under the given circumstances, there was “no better option” than having him there.
In another release, the party announced the formation of the central zone’s unit of information technology (IT) wing and appointed B. Vinubalan secretary for the central zone With this, the number of zonal units of the wing went up to five.