Ruling party reinstates Vellore city secretary post

Though the 13 assembly constituencies were split into Vellore east, Vellore west and Vellore central for easy administration, Vellore west district secretary and Commercial Taxes Minister KC Veeramani realigned the 13 constituencies into the Vellore east and west districts four years ago. This resulted in Arakkonam MLA S Ravi becoming the Vellore east district secretary while cadres in Vellore city were unhappy over there being no city secretary post.

The news that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had ordered the new post also had the rider that a person from a dominant community should be recommended for the post. Two names which are making the rounds include former district secretary and former health minister VS Vijay and present Vellore east deputy secretary SRK Appu, who twice lost to DMK stalwart Duraimurugan at the hustings. Though present district treasurer M Moorthy – a former district secretary himself - sought the post he was told the post was meant for a dominant community candidate.

Sources also revealed that the Chief Minister was not happy with the choice of candidates for the post suggested by Minister Veeramani and he put his foot down to choose a local heavy weight for the city secretary post.