New role for DMK old guards

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MAY 23. After a candid assessment that dissensions and groupism had cost the party heavily in the May 10 Assembly elections, the DMK today brought the old-guards for active party work and to galvanise the organisation. Stopping short of an organisational revamp as party elections had been completed only last year, the DMK administrative committee, nonetheless, effected a major change to bring about a qualitative difference in the party's functioning. The DMK has now created a supervisory tier of ``regional coordinators'', comprising most of the old district veterans to oversee the cohesive functioning of the party's 50 district-level units.

Announcing the decision to reporters here, the DMK president, Mr.M. Karunanidhi, said without shuffling the 50 district secretaries, the district-level units had been grouped under 17 regions, each of whose functioning would be overseen by the regional coordinators. ``The idea is to ensure better coordination and acceleration of party work at different levels from the branch units, block units and upwards,'' Mr.Karunanidhi said. The coordinators would regularly report to the party headquarters on the ground situation. Asked whether the decision implied that the present set of district secretaries had failed to deliver the goods in the Assembly elections, Mr.Karunanidhi said they had done ``well'', but things ought to have been done a lot more better. Hence the coordinators, many of whom are former Ministers, would be a bridge between them and the party leadership. The DMK's urban district units in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai, were, however, excluded from this exercise as ``it was found not necessary,'' said the general secretary, Mr.K. Anbazhagan.

The party's decision is seen as being significant as Opposition parties such as the MDMK led by Mr.Vaiko raised a hue and cry, during the campaign, over Mr.Karunanidhi's ``tacit attempt'' to project his son, Mr.M.K. Stalin as the next leader. In fact, the senior DMK leader and Union Minister, Mr. Murasoli Maran, explicitly refuted this view even during the campaign saying, ``there is no Prince of Wales in the DMK.''

The administrative committee meeting also passed three resolutions, which included thanking the electorate who voted for the DMK and its allies, and urging the AIADMK Government to immediately release the former Deputy Speaker, Mr.Paruthi Ilamvazhuthi, and his associates, who had been arrested on the ``trumped-up'' charge that he made an attempt on the life of Mr.John Pandian, who contested against Mr.Ilamvazhuthi in the Egmore constituency here.

The DMK's regional coordinators and their areas are: Thanjavur North, Thanjavur South, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Pudukottai districts (Mr.Ko.Si.Mani); Salem East, Salem West and Namakkal (Mr.Veerapandi S.Arumugam); Vellore East, Vellore West, Dharmapuri North and Dharmapuri South (Mr.Durai Murugan); Madurai (rural) North, Madurai South and Sivaganga (Mr.Pasumponn T.Kiruttinan); Tiruchi, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Karur (Mr.K.N.Nehru); Villupuram North and Villupuram South (Mr.K.Ponmudi); Ramanathapuram and Virdhunagar (Mr.Suba.Thangavelan); Erode North and Erode South (Mr.N.K.K.Periyasamy); Coimbatore (rural) North, Coimbatore South and the Nilgiris (Mr.Pongalur N.Palanisamy); Cuddalore North and Cuddalore South (Mr.M.R.K.Pannerselvam); Thiruvannamalai North and Thiruvannamalai South (Mr.K.Pitchandi); Theni, Dindigul East and Dindigul West (Mr.I.Periyasamy); Tirunelveli East and Tirunelveli West (Mr.Karuppasamy Pandian); Tuticorin North and Tuticorin South (Mr.N.Periyasamy); Kanyakumari East and Kanyakumari West (Mr.G.M.Shah); Tiruvallur East and Tiruvallur West (Mr.R.S.Bharathi) and Kancheepuram North and Kancheepuram South (Mr.M.A.Vaidyalingam).

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