AIADMK to have eight district units in Chennai

Chennai

A statement from the AIADMK headquarters named party organising secretary Adhi Rajaram and
former MLA MK Ashok as the new district secretaries for South Chennai.

To be precise, South Chennai alone will have four district secretaries. Minister D Jayakumar will continue to be the North Chennai East district secretary and former AIADMK MP Balaganga will be North Chennai West district secretary, the statement said. The party also retained the existing district secretaries in Chennai.

According to AIADMK headquarters sources, the ruling party has decided to create more district units in other cities and 80 per cent of the bifurcation works are over.

Each district secretary will now have two to five Assembly constituencies reducing their regional boundary. Similarly, the campaign and funding part should be taken care by the local district Ministers along with district secretaries, sources said.

The AIADMK is also gearing up for its general body meeting and the party had also started the preliminary works related to the elections.

Recently, the AIADMK made organisational changes that included an addition of 11 district units and the dropping of five district secretaries. The total number of district units has gone up from 67 to 69 and it is likely to reach an all-time high of around 75, party insiders said.
 
Several dissents have also mushroomed within the AIADMK as some of the former MPs and MLAs, who aspired for the district secretary posts are now disappointed, sources said.

“This is an age-old strategy from the books of Amma (Jayalalithaa).  District secretaries who win maximum seats will get elevation and those who lose seats to the rival DMK will lose their party posts. The DMK is also bifurcating the district units and the fight will be intense next year,” an AIADMK MLA said adding that the appointment of more district secretaries will help the ruling party to fight anti-incumbency and ensure more electoral spending for the party candidates.