AMMK to discuss election debacle on June 1

According to the AMMK party insiders, the leaders have discussed the party’s performance and the debacle in the Lok Sabha and 22 vacant Assembly bypolls. There were also other party supporters and confidantes of Sasikala calling on the jailed leader booked along with former CM J Jayalalithaa in connection with disproportionate assets case.

Meanwhile, AMMK had also started examining the reasons behind party’s drubbing in the recent polls and the party had also invited all the candidates who contested in the recent Lok Sabha and the Assembly for a discussion on June 1 at the AMMK partyheadquarters.

A statement from the party general secretary Dhinakaran also urged the party executive committee and district secretaries to attend the meeting without fail.

“In contrast to the claim of being an alternative to the AIADMK, the AMMK had suffered set back and we were expecting around 10 to 12 per cent of vote share. Even senior AMMK leaders like P Vettrivel, P Palaniappan, Thangatamilselvan and Pughazenthi had performed poorly. We are confident of improving from the debacle,” said an AMMK functionary invited for the discussion. AMMK, whose candidates contested as an independent with a common symbol “Gift Box,” was expected to play a spoilsport for the AIADMK but the votes polled by the party was nothing closer to the victory margin of the DMK-led alliance. The saving grace for the party came in Theni, Ramanathapuram and Madurai, where the party finished third overtaking Kamal’s Makkal Needhi Maiam and Naam Tamilar Katchi led by Seeman.