AIADMK ropes in ex-NTK speakers to counter DMK

The AIADMK has plans to dispatch the young workers trained in NTK to target the opposition DMK and interestingly some of them are advocates who had also unsuccessfully contested in the previous Assembly polls. The AIADMK also organised a joining programme for the AMMK workers in RK Nagar on Tuesday.

The NTK workers also assured the Local Administration Minister SP Velumani of poaching more members from the NTK and other pro-Tamil Nationalist parties. In the past one-year, the NTK has lost more than half a dozen young lawyers and a few district secretaries to the ruling AIADMK. The AIADMK had also started reaching out to the sulking NTK workers and the latest catch is the party’s state youth wing pasarai secretary Professor Kalyanasundaram. On Monday, Kalyanasundaram joined the AIADMK along with his supporters in the presence of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

On Tuesday, the AIADMK roped in about a dozen AMMK workers from RK Nagar where the AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran is the sitting MLA. “Most of the NTK members are upset as the party leadership fails to address the grievances of the current office-bearers. In politics, frictions are common, and it is the responsibility of the party leader to address such issues,” said former NTK Vellore district secretary T Karthikeyan, who switched loyalty to the AIADMK. Karthikeyan is the now the Ranipet union council secretary of AIADMK IT wing.

Several advocates who were in the party has moved out of NTK after being approached by the AIADMK. The AIADMK has assured public welfare and political growth, so the dissent NTK senior like Kalyanasundaram has joined the ruling party, Karthikeyan opined.

“There is no growth for the secondary level leaders in the party and there is no democracy within the party and that is the main reason for my exit from the NTK. During the initial days, party leader Seeman used to be friendly, but his arrogant approach has made genuine workers leave the party,” Kalyanasundaram told media before joining the AIADMK. Like Kalyanasundram another NTK pasarai secretary and key campaign speaker Rajiv Gandhi had also left the party. Gandhi is yet to join any party.