EPS exhorts party workers to get ready for local body polls in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: With the Supreme Court directing the state election commission to hold the local body polls by September 15 in the new nine districts, AIADMK co-coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday exhorted party district secretaries of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Chengalpet, besides Chennai to gear up for the fight.
Party coordinator O Panneerselvam, however, skipped the meeting that did a minor stock taking of the party’s performance in the assembly election as well.
The meeting, held at the party headquarters, comes against the backdrop of V K Sasikala’s calls to cadres and functionaries and asserting she would take over the party. “Though there was no talk about Sasikala, EPS was emphatic that the senior partymen should change the approach towards cadres and public and win the local body polls.
It is the functionaries’ failure to take along the cadres that cost the party dearly in the assembly election,” said a functionary, privy to the meeting. Last week, chief minister and DMK chief M K Stalin had held a meeting of district secretaries, exhorting them to evolve plans to win the local bodies.
In his two-hour-long meeting with 10 secretaries of Chennai and neighbouring districts and senior leaders, EPS strongly dismissed suggestions that came from a few that minorities and disgruntled cadres were the reason for the poor show in the assembly election. Palaniswami pointed out how he won the election in his Edappadi segment with their support.
The local body polls will have to be won by selecting appropriate candidates and taking the AIADMK’s achievements to the public, he said. Palaniswami also reeled out the statistics of the poll outcome and said the party could have won in more than 25 seats, where it lost by a very low margin, and secured the consecutive third term. In T Nagar, AIADMK’s B Sathiyanarayanan lost by 137 votes to DMK’s J Karunanidhi.
The AIADMK lost Tenkasi and Katpadi seats to DMK by 370 votes and 746 votes respectively. When the talks veered about the DMK’s “failure” in implementing the poll promises, including Rs 1,000 monthly-aid to home makers, abolishing NEET, reducing fuel price and waiver of loans in cooperative banks, Palaniswami told partymen that people were aware of it and for now the party should focus on the local body polls. “He said the vote share between the AIADMK and DMK was a mere 3.8% and that reflected people’s support for his regime,” another functionary said.