Chennai: The DMK has begun cracking the whip on party functionaries who conspired against party candidates and led to their defeat in the Assembly elections, without keeping party’s larger interests in mind.
The DMK leadership has received complaints of infighting during the Assembly elections that led to the party’s defeat in at least 25 constituencies. Besides, the party scrapped through by narrow margins in several constituencies due to action of party functionaries opposed to the official nominees of the party. There were complaints of DMK activists working for AIADMK candidates too.
The party had received such complaints from Vellore, Salem, Namakkal, Coimbatore, Erode and Nilgiris. The DMK is planning to inquire into the complaints and weed out the culprits from the party. It started from Vellore where it removed Jolarpet AIADMK functionary K.C. Alagiri, who is the brother of AIADMK minister K.C. Veeramani. It was alleged that Alagiri worked for his brother in Jolarpet, when he was denied the party ticket.
The DMK leadership also dissolved the Mohanur union committee and nominated its former secretary to be in charge of the unit. Tiruppur (South) district secretary Selvaraj had already resigned, while party candidates had complained about the district functionaries of Coimbatore district, where the party lost badly.
In Salem too, the party won just a single seat and lost all others by huge margins to the AIADMK. Infighting among the various factions is said to the reason for the rout. Though, the party had taken action against party functionaries, who worked against the party earlier, it had admitted them in due course of time, encouraging similar activities in future.
DMK leader M. Karunanidhi, who spoke in the party’s executive meeting had mentioned about the betrayal within the party and promised action against them.
