I-PAC just consultant, clarifies Stalin

He has given the reassurance during the meeting of the district secretaries he had chaired at party headquarters Anna Arivalayam on Monday.

Though the main agenda of the meeting was the ensuing urban local body polls, much of the time was dedicated by Stalin to allay the fears of the district secretaries about the agreement with I-PAC.

“It appeared as if the meeting was convened to clear the apprehensions of the district secretaries. Otherwise, there was no need for KN Nehru to rake up the issue. Nehru had set the tone for Stalin by commenting on the arrangement with Prashant Kishore. Stalin picked up from there,” said a DMK source privy to the meeting.

Taking over from his newly appointed principal headquarters secretary Nehru, who occupied the dais for the first time in a major party meet, Stalin said the analyst has been engaged to only conduct an elaborate survey, which the party normally does. A party leader who was among the audience quoted Stalin as saying that PK’s team would survey the state for 2021, like the high command had done earlier, before launching the Namakku Naamey tour.

Stalin, sources revealed, had cared to clear the air after complaints of the district secretaries started pouring in. Going by information received from party insiders, I-PAC would study voter’s pulse and assess the party strength across the state. Stalin was understood to have recalled an instance from the distant past when a district secretary asserted his authority with a district collector and told the district secretaries that they would be the decision makers during elections as usual.

DT Next has reliably learnt that I-PAC is preparing a preliminary report, which is expected to be submitted to Stalin by March 10. The preliminary report on the election preparedness of DMK and public expectation is expected to comprise at least 250 people per constituency.

DMK president MK Stalin has urged the Centre and state to allot more funds to Central Institute of Classical Tamil. Citing Union Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel’s statement in Parliament, Stalin, noted that Rs 643.84 crore was allotted between 2017 and 2020 for Sanskrit whereas only Rs 22.94 crore was allotted for Tamil during the same period. He wondered if CM Edappadi K Palaniswami was keeping calm despite knowing that Tamil was being belittled by the Centre. He sarcastically asked if EPS was trying to win award for Sanskrit development?