With eye on 2024 polls, Kanimozhi plans women’s meet across TN

CHENNAI: Newly anointed Deputy General Secretary of DMK, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, is planning a state-wide meet of women leaders at the grassroot levels. According to sources in the party, the DMK leader has chalked out a roadmap for preparing grassroot women leaders for the 2024 general elections.

While addressing the new office bearers of the party, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M.K. Stalin asked them not to waste any time on the preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The DMK president also called upon the party leaders and cadres to win all 40 seats in the Lok Sabha which include 39 from Tamil Nadu and one from the Union Territory of Puducherry.

In 2019 general elections, the DMK won 38 Lok Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu with the lone seat going to AIADMK being the Theni seat where O. Panneerselvam's son, P. Ravindranath Kumar won. The DMK wants a repeat of that performance and Stalin's speech after assuming office as party President for the second time in a row was aimed at motivating the party leaders and cadres for a repeat.

Sources said Kanimozhi is planning to conduct a meeting of women leaders on a regional basis with north, south, east and west Tamil Nadu. The meeting will have participation from booth-level leaders of the women's wing and in each meeting, the DMK is planning to bring in one or two ministers who will explain on the grassroot developments in his ministry.

Kanimozhi who is also the woman wing's secretary of the DMK will be travelling extensively across the state and meeting prominent people in each town. The party also has to shed its image of a rough and tough party to a suave one and Kanimozhi's elevation is considered by many party cadres and political observers as a step in the right direction.

While speaking to IANS, R. Padmanabhan, Director of Socio-Economic Development Foundation, a think-tank based out of Madurai, said, "Kanimozhi is suave, astute and has excellent interpersonal skills and Stalin has done it right to elevate her to the post of Deputy General Secretary of the party. This move will help party stride ahead, given her astuteness and the manner in which she is handling her constituency, is a clear indication as to what she can do in politics."

While some have levelled charges of dynasty politics after Kanimozhi's appointment as Deputy General Secretary, most of the cadres rubbished the charge, saying that she had wrested the sitting bastion of the AIADMK, Thoothukudi.