LS polls: Stalin pulls up observers for delaying booth committee work

CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin is understood to have admonished the observers appointed for all 234 constituencies for the delay in constituting booth committees for next year's Parliamentary election.

Chairing the first consultation meeting from the camp office via video call since the appointment of the observers for all Assembly constituencies, Stalin on Saturday instructed the observers to not be laid back in setting up booth committees for 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

A party functionary privy to the meeting disclosed to this paper that the Chief Minister, who is also the president of the DMK, was unhappy with the slackness shown by the district units and observers in the constitution of the booth committees.

Shortly after the general council meeting in October 2022 and subsequent meeting of the party district secretaries, the DMK high command had instructed the district party units to set up booth committees and send the details to the high command, which the district units put on the backburner.

According to reliable DMK sources, only a fifth of the party districts have so far completed the process of setting up booth committees, which has irked the party high command. Expressing his unhappiness over the issue, Stalin is said to have instructed the constituency observers to prod the local party units and complete the booth committee formation at the earliest and send the lists to the high command soon. The constituency observers, it is said, were also asked to closely monitor the ongoing membership drive.

The DMK leadership has instructed the party units to enrol an additional one crore members in the next few months. The ruling party, apart from the state BJP, is among the first in the state to commence the preparations for the Lok Sabha election.