CHENNAI: DMK leaders Duraimurugan and TR Baalu were on Wednesday elected the new general secretary and treasurer of the party respectively.

To elect a new general secretary and treasurer, a general body was convened on Wednesday through video conference. The party’s general body members and special invitees took part from 65 party district unit offices across the state.

During the meeting, former Tamil Nadu minister Duraimurugan and former Union minister TR Baalu were unanimously elected. This was expected as no one else applied for the posts when the party invited applications from members last week.

Besides, the party’s general body appointed former Tamil Nadu minister K Ponmudi and former Union minister A Raja as deputy secretaries. With this, the number of deputy secretaries of the party has increased to five.

Hundreds of messages in favour of Raja on social media may have helped him gain the post, said party sources. Since assembly elections are round the corner and in an apparent bid to please the Dalit community, the DMK leadership decided to nominate him as deputy secretary.

During the meeting, 12 resolutions were adopted. The party urged the Union government not to take steps to implement the NEP 2020 till it's discussed in Parliament and the AIADMK-led state government to oppose the NEP which is against Tamil Nadu’s bilingual policy.

It said education should be brought back into the state list from the concurrent list and the union government should repeal the EIA 2020 as it is against state rights and anti-democratic. The meeting also condemned the BJP-led Union government, saying it protects the corrupt AIADMK-led state government, snatches away the rights of the state and imposes anti-people projects in Tamil Nadu.

Justice should be given for victims of the Sterlite police firing and the state and central governments should give up their anti-farmers policies, it added.