Bypoll: AIADMK top brass holds strategic meet

It is learnt that the meeting follows a report from the state police’s intelligence wing detailing the prospects of the party’s presidium chairman E Madhusudhanan who is contesting the December 21 RK Nagar bypoll. Sources indicated that the report was adverse, which eventually prompted the impromptu meeting. Those in attendance included D Jayakumar, Dindigul C Srinivasan, KA Sengottaiyan, SP Velumani, P Thangamani, R Vaithilingam, C Vijaya Baskar, and MR Vijayabhaskar, among others.

The CM was reported to be in an advice mode reiterating the need to win the seat which was twice represented by the late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa. He had advised his party colleagues to step up their campaign and to garner more support to Madhusudhanan.

For the unified AIADMK, winning the seat will only be their avenue to brace up for the long legal battle the sidelined leader turned independent candidate TTV Dinakaran is expected to unleash.

Losing the seat would also prove the charges traded by principal opposition DMK working president MK Stalin as true of having lost the mandate of the public and this would mean the letter handed out to the then Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao by dissent MLAs withdrawing support to EPS, gaining credence.