Chennai: The DMK district secretaries will meet on Thursday under the leadership of working president M.K. Stalin to chalk out the party's course at a crucial phase of state politics, when the post-Jayalalithaa void is exacerbated by the bitter power struggle by the AIADMK factions that has created a new opportunity for their thalapathi to emerge as the most important leader in the state.
The meet will have to address two challenges that the party now faces— replacing the ailing Kalaignar with his son in the public mind as the natural choice for leadership and battling the BJP for its involvement in sustaining the AIADMK Government from collapse due to internal conflicts.
For the record, the party has set the Thursday agenda thus: discussing the platinum jubilee of the DMK organ Murasoli and the Neet issue. Even till June 3, the 94th birth day of party president M. Karunanidhi, the DMK was relying on Karunanidhi’s legacy and party needs to build a charisma around Stalin so that the party could go on to win any polls held in future.
After Jayalalithaa’s demise, all the faction of the AIADMK are relying heavily on her legacy, announcing memorial for her. The party had fallen back to its founder MGR’s legacy too, celebrating his centenary in a grand manner in Madurai.
Stalin too is depending on his father’s legacy and went to the extent of asking party men not to erect his cut out and restrict themselves with that of Karunanidhi, party founder C.N.Annadurai and Dravidian movement’s founder E.V.R. Periyar.
However, Stalin’s declaration is not followed by cadre, who feel thet party could not go on recalling Karunanidhi’s legacy and keep itself relevant in state politics. The DMK activists had arranged public meetings for Stalin displaying his cut outs and even the party posters show the working president’s image in a bigger way.
A no-confidence motion against the Edappadi K. Palaniswami is ruled out for a month and the DMK would be watching the fall out of party deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran’s campaign tour from August 5.
As Dhinakaran starts meeting people, the other two factions too could start mobilising people. The DMK too needs to catch up with the ruling party and meet the people regularly to keep Stalin’s brigade relevant to the masses. The district secretaries meeting is likely to pick up issues for mass mobilisation, besides ways to do it.
