CHENNAI: The entry of new players, particularly from the tinsel town, ambitiously wearing the politician’s mantle has seemingly forced the DMK to re-devise its strategy to consolidate strength, expand party organisation and widen the mass base.
With Kamal Haasan set to launch his party on Wednesday and Rajinikanth in preparatory mode for floating his party, the biggest concern of the principal opposition party is how to keep its flock together without leaving it vulnerable to poaching, and to inspire the party rank and file with innovative programmes.
The likely emergence of the celluloid stars, who have a considerable fan following, will surely be a bigger headache for the DMK, which has been slipping in its bid to capture power in the State by capitalising on the political uncertainty or void caused by the demise of J Jayalalithaa.
The DMK’s dismal performance in the recent RK Nagar bypoll has further dented the morale of its unenthusiastic cadre, while the high-handed approach of certain district secretaries has already piqued them. Taking into account the emerging political configurations, the DMK leadership looks to be seized of the ground realities and has swung into action to infuse fresh blood into the party organisation. Stalin is contemplating several steps for structural adjustments to accommodate emerging leaders in top echelons of the district unit, besides placating grudging leaders.
“The party organisational structure will come up for changes soon. Bigger districts will be bifurcated to create more organisational districts. An idea being mooted is to create a party organisational district with a geographical area of three assembly constituencies,” a senior leader said.
He added that certain organisational districts had already been created with three Assembly segments. Currently, the party has got 65 organisational districts.
To look into the organisational set-up and come out with suggestions, Stalin has constituted a three-member committee headed by former Union minister T R Baalu. Rajya Sabha member T K S Elangovan and MLA S Austin are the members of the panel, which is mandated to complete the exercise and submit its report by March 20, two days before Stalin winds up his ongoing introspective sessions with party office-bearers.
In the revamp, more thrust will be given to the western Tamil Nadu, where the party fared poorly in 2016 Assembly elections.