EPS working hard to tighten grip on home district

The series of visits by the Chief Minister is being viewed as an exercise to build a mass base for himself in his home district. He has been battling charges of lack of people support. Palaniswami, who brought the mango district back on the political map after the retirement of Rajaji from active politics in 1971, has announced many development schemes for the district in the recent months.  

Salem has become a hot bed of political activities ever since Palaniswami took over as the Chief Minister and he had been making efforts to retain the party’s support base in the AIADMK stronghold like the charismatic leaders MGR and J Jayalalithaa. Palaniswami, the only Chief Minister in the history of the state to retain a district secretary post, has come out with numerous measures for his home district, especially his constituency Edappadi, from where he is certain to seek re-election. 

The Chief Minister is carefully nurturing his constituency ensuring that it gets new schemes and projects in every department. He himself has announced desilting and renovation of Mettur Kizhakkukarai canal at a cost of Rs 49 crore at Edappadi, besides restoration of eight lakes in Salem. Even when it came to new police stations and vehicles, Salem got priority getting three police stations and 22 police vehicles. 

Interestingly, the main rival for Palaniswami in Edappadi in the 2016 Assembly election was the PMK, which pushed the DMK to the third place. The PMK had crossed 20 per cent votes in three seats-Edappadi, Omalur and Mettur. So, the Chief Minister will have to keep both the parties at bay, if he wants to retain his rural seat.  

Salem had been a stronghold of the AIADMK right from its inception and it won 10 out of 11 seats in the district garnering 9,68,458 votes in the district in the 2016 Assembly elections. The DMK obtained a single seat getting 7,82,004 votes in the 11 seats, while the PMK secured 3,01,844 votes in the district.