AIADMK to launch door-to-door campaign highlighting DMK's 'failures'

CHENNAI: AIADMK , the principal opposition party in Tamil Nadu, will kick off its 2024 general elections campaign by conducting a door-to-door campaign to inform the people about the ‘failures of the DMK government.

AIADMK, which is facing several internal issues including the expulsion of former Chief Minister and party coordinator O. Panneerselvam, popularly known as OPS , and the removal of ex-interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala and her nephew T.T.V. Dhinakaran, is planning the mega outreach programme to launch a narrative against the DMK government.

Sources in the party told IANS that the AIADMK is keen to wake up the party cadres and to rejuvenate the party at the grassroots level, for which a door-to-door outreach programme is necessary.

According to an AIADMK leader, the party is finalising the basics of the programme and the issues that have to be highlighted which would hit the DMK the most.

The DMK, when it was in the opposition, was vociferous that it would not allow the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate medical courses. This will be one issue, which the AIADMK will take up during its door-to-door campaign.

A recent meeting of the party’s district office-bearers held at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai decided that such a massive exercise is required for the party to stay afloat in the political firmament of Tamil Nadu.

The party’s supreme leader, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, popularly known as EPS, who is also a former Chief Minister of the state, is keen that AIADMK shows its strength by conducting such an exercise at all the district headquarters.

It may be recalled that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK front had received a massive drubbing, losing 38 of the 39 seats in the state.

The only solace was the victory of party candidate O.P. Raveendranath, the son of OPS, who had won from the home turf of Theni, defeating senior Congress leader E.V.K.S. Elangovan.

The AIADMK is now planning this massive outreach programme also to understand the feedback from the people and to shape up its election strategy based on it.

Soumyanath, a professor of political science at a college in Erode, told IANS, “The AIADMK is a political party that has strong grassroots support, and if the door-to-door campaign highlighting the failures of the DMK government is conducted, the party will not only be rejuvenated, but also get a clear idea as to how the people rates it and the ruling regime.”