Team Udhay’s entry heats up DMK district secretary polls

CHENNAI: The election of district secretaries has heated up in the ruling DMK. As the existing district heads make their moves to retain their long-held positions, new faces have thrown their hats into the ring. DMK youth wing secretary and Chepauk-Triplicane MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin is understood to have recommended a few names from his youth brigade for elevation as district secretary (in charge).

If sources in the party are to be believed, Stalin junior might have proposed around half a dozen of his active and trusted lieutenants to the post.

Grapevine has it that state youth wing deputy secretary Joel from Thoothukudi, district youth wing in charge of Chengalpattu Abdul Malik, Eswarappan of Ranipet, Karthikeyan from Coimbatore, Prakash from Erode and MLA RD Sekar from Chennai are among the names proposed by the influential youth wing secretary for the district secretary elections.

However, the high command is unlikely to consider all the names for elevation owing to influence of regional satraps.

The high command might consider one or two names in best-case scenario to infuse some young blood and increase the aspirational level among cadre, but it would not be done at the cost of angering the existing district bosses, who hold sway in their respective turfs, said a state party functionary on condition of anonymity.

Significantly, elevation of youth wing functionaries to district secretary post is neither first nor conceived only by Udhayanidhi.

Even Udhayanidhi has done it in the past when he got Rajesh Kumar of Namakkal and N Chitrarasu of Chennai elevated as district in charge the last time. He was only emulating his father and incumbent party chief MK Stalin who did it for his trusted lieutenants Ma Subramanian (current state Health Minister), MLA Panamarathupatty Rajendran (Salem) and Information Minister Vellakoil Saminathan during his father M Karunanidhi’s tenure as the party chief.

Pertinently, another assessment is also expected to be happening within the party vis-a-vis the district secretary elections, the only level of intra-party election believed to be pending in the organisation.

The high command might consider one or two names in best-case scenario to infuse some young blood and increase the aspirational level among cadre, but it would not be done at the cost of angering the existing district bosses