Reporter's Diary: Internal shuffle that created quite the ruffle

CHENNAI: The State has seen a variety of shuffles within the DMK party, ministerial, bureaucratic and political, all in a matter of a fortnight. Just as the dust settled after the cabinet reshuffle, which is popularly rumoured to be motivated by the PTR audio tapes, news of a massive rejig in the State bureaucracy, and that too at the level of CM’s secretary came as a bolt out of the blue.

The State was witness to a bureaucratic restructuring, which hit the headlines as much as a rejig in a political party would do. Most of the media went to town over the changes, and some of them got it right to an extent that it’d make even seasoned punters proud.

When the people thought they got a breather, in came the news of a significant shake up a few days ago. The party sacked its Tirunelveli central district secretary Abdul Wahab from the party post.

For once, this decision did not surprise the party workers or the people of Tirunelveli. The buzz was that the party high command was late in acting against the Palayamkottai MLA who had been facing charges aplenty from within the local party unit and the public over his actions of late.

The public exchange of blows between supporters of the MLA and incumbent Tirunelveli Mayor Saravanan, once a Wahab supporter, in the presence of visiting party general secretary Duraimurugan was embarrassing enough. Then came the complaint filed by a party worker’s widow that turned out to be the last straw that broke the camel’s back.