Reporter’s Diary: Are old horses in AIADMK losing the favour of CM?

According to sources in the ruling party, one of the prominent Ministers from western districts, who was close to the Chief Minister and was in his good books for long, has been left out of election work completely. The Minister usually finds prominence in all the works of the State government in the past but in recent days, the Minister has been completely neglected by the CM. 

One of the reasons that is being cited for the neglect is that, of late, the Minister has been acting on his own and is trying to project himself as a leader more powerful than the Chief Minister. 

Another reason is his recent flop show in the Vellore Lok Sabha election in which the election work undertaken by him was sloppy and the segment for which he was in-charge fared badly. Similarly, another Minister in the northern district, too, has lost the CM’s favour. If sources were to be believed, the CM carefully avoided visiting this Minister’s residence after a death in his family, for which the Deputy Chief Minister and even leader of an ally who was ‘at war’ with the Minister visited and consoled him.