CHENNAI: After the AIADMK’s defeat in the assembly election, the party leadership on Wednesday directed functionaries of the districts where rural local body polls would be held, to focus their campaign on the unfulfilled poll promises of the ruling DMK. The functionaries were asked to screen potential candidates cautiously, especially since they lost a large chunk of minority votes in the assembly election held in April, sources said.
The two-day session on poll preparedness began with Vellore, Tirupathur and Ranipet district units in the morning, and Kancheepuram and Chengapet in the evening. “In a separate meeting with the functionaries, who are otherwise members of the general council, the leaders said the morale of the cadres should be raised and unhappy cadres should be taken care of to ensure they work hard to ensure victory in the local body polls,” said a senior leader.
The party leadership organised state-wide protests recently against the ‘failure’ of the DMK in fulfilling its promises in its election manifesto, including getting NEET scrapped, waiver of jewel and educational loans, reduction of fuel price and ?1,000 monthly aid to women homemakers. Partymen were directed to vigorously campaign highlighting DMK’s alleged ‘poll-gimmick.’ OPS and EPS pointed out that the newly carved out districts were an achievement of the AIADMK regime besides bringing government services closer to the people. The construction of multi-crore collectorates in the new districts and creation of new taluks and the revenue divisional offices, and the high cost infrastructure schemes, also came up for discussion.
Given the party leadership’s reiteration to continue the alliance with the BJP, the functionaries of the northern districts, dominated by minorities, were not too enthusiastic about discussing local political issues with the leadership. The huge presence of minorities in Tirupathur, Jolarpet, Melvisharam and Ranipet dented the fortunes of the AIADMK in Vellore and Ranipet districts in the assembly election. In all, the AIADMK and its allies, the BJP and the PMK, won12 out of 45 seats in all nine districts that would go to rural local body polls.
The two-day session on poll preparedness began with Vellore, Tirupathur and Ranipet district units in the morning, and Kancheepuram and Chengapet in the evening. “In a separate meeting with the functionaries, who are otherwise members of the general council, the leaders said the morale of the cadres should be raised and unhappy cadres should be taken care of to ensure they work hard to ensure victory in the local body polls,” said a senior leader.
The party leadership organised state-wide protests recently against the ‘failure’ of the DMK in fulfilling its promises in its election manifesto, including getting NEET scrapped, waiver of jewel and educational loans, reduction of fuel price and ?1,000 monthly aid to women homemakers. Partymen were directed to vigorously campaign highlighting DMK’s alleged ‘poll-gimmick.’ OPS and EPS pointed out that the newly carved out districts were an achievement of the AIADMK regime besides bringing government services closer to the people. The construction of multi-crore collectorates in the new districts and creation of new taluks and the revenue divisional offices, and the high cost infrastructure schemes, also came up for discussion.
Given the party leadership’s reiteration to continue the alliance with the BJP, the functionaries of the northern districts, dominated by minorities, were not too enthusiastic about discussing local political issues with the leadership. The huge presence of minorities in Tirupathur, Jolarpet, Melvisharam and Ranipet dented the fortunes of the AIADMK in Vellore and Ranipet districts in the assembly election. In all, the AIADMK and its allies, the BJP and the PMK, won12 out of 45 seats in all nine districts that would go to rural local body polls.
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