Busy political action in Royapettah, T Nagar

Sources said that the several lower level leaders, including Vellore west district treasurer P Neelakantan, refused to attend the meeting due to a spat with district secretary and Commercial Taxes Minister K C Veeramani. “This is not an isolated incident,” said a party insider. 

“The meetings are for district, panchayat union and town-level office-bearers and the ostensible reason for such meetings is for Sasikala to get first-hand feedback about the party rank and file and to ‘convince’ them that their needs would be met. But grassroots cadre are still not convinced. Their mood is reflected in the meetings,” he added. 

Ramu Manivannan of Madras University said, “Sasikala is trying to reach out by planning to tour the districts in the next few weeks. This is because of a void between MLAs and MPs on one side and cadre on the other. It is a broken bridge which has never been repaired.” Meanwhile, a group of party cadre wanting Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar to become Chief Minister, ‘nominated’ district organisers for 21 districts including Salem, Namakkal, Madurai, Coimbatore, Erode and Tiruchy a few days ago and also unveiled the Jayalalithaa Deepa Peravai flag with Jayalalithaa’s picture at the centre.