CHENNAI: The AIADMK has decided to launch its own party mouthpiece Nam Amma and a television channel probably to be named as Amma TV soon. Party sources said all works on the establishment of Nam Amma is over and the daily newspaper would be launched to give wide coverage about the welfare schemes implemented by the State government as well as to counter political opponents.
“The newspaper is likely to hit the stands on January 17, the birth anniversary of AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran, or on February 24, the birth anniversary of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Meanwhile, the works on launching the television channel are going on,” the sources added.
Significantly, Nam Amma will be edited by Marudhu Alaguraj, former editor of Namadhu MGR, the erstwhile mouthpiece of the AIADMK for a few decades and now managed by the family members of V K Sasikala.
The resolution adopted at the high-level meeting held on August 28 last year at AIADMK headquarters said that Jaya TV and Namadhu MGR were the party assets and that all legal steps would be taken to ensure that these two mouthpieces of the party would continue to sing the glories of Jayalalithaa. The resolution said the television channel and the daily were being established thanks to the untiring efforts of Jayalalithaa as well as the contributions from lakhs of party cadre.
Meanwhile, chairing the meeting of the AIADMK Legislature Party, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam urged all MLAs to attend the forthcoming session of Assembly from January 8 without fail. During the meeting, without naming T T V Dhinakaran, they reportedly asked the MLAs not to be provoked by any remark made during the session.
Both leaders have directed the MLAs to bring grievances of the people to the notice of the government immediately and also help in taking the developmental schemes of the government to the people.
Deputy CM Panneerselvam urged the MLAs to be prepared to face elections in future and indicated that elections to local bodies would take place within a few months.
In all, 104 MLAs attended the meeting while three ministers -- Sellur K Raju, G Baskaran and Kadambur Raju — and four MLAs could not attend the meeting as they had some other engagements and had informed the party leadership about their programmes.
12 spokespersons appointed
The AIADMK on Wednesday appointed 12 spokespersons, including veteran leader C Ponnaiyan. The other spokespersons are ‘Nam Amma’ editor Marudhu Alaguraj, B Valarmathi, S Gokula Indira, J C D Prabhakar, G Samarasam, Vaigai Selvan, Kovai Selvaraj, Prof Dheeran, K C Palanisamy, A S Maheswari and R M Babu Murugavel.
In a joint statement, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said these 12 spokespersons had been authorised to participate in debates in television channels and to convey the stand of the party to the print media. On behalf of alliance parties, only Y Jawahar Ali of the Indian National League would participate in television debates.
Apparently to put an end to the practice of several functionaries airing various views, creating confusion as well as embarrassment to the party on a daily basis, both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had on November 28 announced that a new set of spokespersons would be appointed to contact the media.
New Beginnings
All works for the establishment of Nam Amma is over and the daily newspaper would be launched to give wide coverage about the welfare schemes implemented by the State government as well as to counter political opponents
Nam Amma will be edited by Marudhu Alaguraj, former editor of Namadhu MGR, the erstwhile mouthpiece of the AIADMK for a few decades and now managed by the family members of
V K Sasikala
At the AIADMK Legislature Party meet on Wednesday, CM Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy CM urge all MLAs to attend the forthcoming session of Assembly from January 8 without fail