Thanking the party in the general council meeting, Raja, in his acceptance speech, said, “You have demonstrated your commitment to social justice in Karunanidhi’s style. One of the deputy general secretary posts is meant for the Arundathiyar community. Brother Anthiyur Selvaraj is already decorating the post. However, you have increased the number of posts (deputy general secretary) to five and have proven that one can compete in the open category too. I salute you for that,” Raja said, attempting to critics, who have been lashing out at the DMK for not elevating a member of Dalit community to top party positions.

A good number of DMK general council members had read between the lines in the statement of Stalin when he elaborated the contribution of Ponmudi to the party. Stalin said that Ponmudi should not confine his contribution to Villupuram.

“Your service is needed at the headquarters too,” he remarked, understandably, leaving tongues wagging in the audience who were wary of the Villupuram strongman’s disgruntlement over the high command appointing him one of the district secretaries, instead of placing him at par with principal headquarters secretary KN Nehru.