Electricity, Agri Ministers camp in Kovai, D’puri to secure DMK win

CHENNAI: Ministers of the ruling DMK have their work cut out ahead of the ensuing urban civic polls. Amid a demanding northeast monsoon season that has been keeping the government machinery engaged during the last few weeks, the DMK Ministers are busy preparing the ground for the urban local body elections, especially in districts where the ruling DMK has fared poorly in the recent elections.

State Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji and Agriculture Minister MRK Panneerselvam are two Ministers who have been balancing between their portfolio and the district they have been appointed in charge of.

Senthilbalaji had offered a glimpse of his plans for Coimbatore last week when Chief Minister MK Stalin himself acknowledged the organisational skills of his resourceful

Minister on the dais. His cabinet colleague Panneerselvam, who was busy touring native Cuddalore among the flood-affected districts to assess the devastation caused by the recent rains, had camped in Dharmapuri a couple of days ago and gave instructions to party functionaries to effect a turnaround in the party prospects there.

Coimbatore and Dharmapuri are the two districts where the DMK could not prevent a clean sweep by the AIADMK in the April 6 Assembly elections.

DMK high command, party sources disclosed, has entrusted the immediate task of securing a big victory in the urban local body polls in AIADMK strongman SP Velumani’s Coimbatore and KP Anbalagan’s Dharmapuri.

“Apart from the trade deals signed in Coimbatore, party revival was a part of the CM’s agenda. We were told that he (Stalin) had briefly discussed the civic poll plans with the Minister in-charge (Senthilbalaji) and local district functionaries during his visit. Senthilbalaji was appointed in-charge of Coimbatore to negate, if not match, the resourcefulness and local community support of Velumani,” said a DMK leader, before suggesting that Velumani’s subsequent statement was motivated by a resourceful Senthilbalaji’s plans for Coimbatore.

Meanwhile, Minister Panneerselvam was learnt to have advised the DMK district heads in Dharmapuri to identify and lure vulnerable functionaries from rival camps, including the PMK which has a base in the western fringes. A DMK source privy to the meeting disclosed that the district secretaries in the five-seat Dharmapuri were also advised to coordinate better with former AIADMK minister P Palaniappan, who defected from AMMK.