Party deputy general secretary A Raja, Assembly whip Chakrapani, LPF general secretary Shanmugham, district secretaries EV Velu and MRK Panneerselvam have been informally asked to supervise the poll preparations of the state party unit which has been split into five different zones.

Raja would oversee party affairs in Chennai and its neighbouring districts, while Panneerselvam would be in charge of the newly created Vellore party districts plus Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Tiruvannamalai. Rajya Sabha MP Shanmugham would be in charge of central districts. Chakrapani and Velu to run the show in west and southern districts, respectively. Grapevine has it that the zonal supervision was mooted by Prashant Kishor run I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee). A DMK source revealed on condition of anonymity that the zonal supervisors have been given the list of probable candidates by the poll strategist, which has reduced the choice from five to three candidates already. The zonal heads were also assigned the task of coordinating with respective district secretaries to fix the weak links. Based on the comprehensive district-wise report provided by I-PAC, the zonal bosses have got in touch with the district secretaries to urge them to pacify disgruntled party functionaries.

Going by information trickling out of Anna Arivalayam, the zonal bosses could soon tour their zones in the company of an I-PAC representative each for elaborate consultation with the district secretaries. The zonal heads are likely to have a major say in identification of candidates, which would be in direct conflict with district secretaries, who were assured months ago by Stalin in a meeting that their powers, especially in candidate identification would not be reduced.

DMK insiders believe that the zonal bosses appointment could be directly linked to Women’s Wing secretary Kanimozhi’s non-appearance from the high-level meeting chaired by Stalin. Though sources close to Kanimozhi attribute non-appearance to a scheduled meeting of the Parliamentary committee, party seniors said the Thoothukudi MP was not all enthused by Stalin’s choice of zonal heads.