EPS' travel covers most of Tamil Nadu ahead of assembly polls
CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami is the only political leader in Tamil Nadu to have travelled across the state extensively in recent months and personally meet people. He had the unique advantage as the CM to do so while the assembly polls just four months away.
Palaniswami had been visiting district after district to review the Covid-19 preventive measures since July. Besides the official purposes such as the launch of key government projects, Palaniswami also personally met a range of people from the local officials, AIADMK functionaries, farmer leaders, MSME entrepreneurs, Women's Self Help Groups, and traders. This had given him an opportunity to understand the pulse of each region and different sections of people.
This is in contrast to the opposition leader MK Stalin who mostly conducted meetings with his party leaders via video conferencing.
On the impact of the Chief Minister's visit to all districts, a senior AIADMK functionary told The New Indian Express, "His objective was to prove that the AIADMK is at least one step ahead in the electoral victory than the past.
During his visits, he listened to the local issues that were not resolved so far. They include issues of farmers,
workers, water issues. The solutions were based on the inputs from those from the respective districts. Besides, he also toned up the district administration during his visits."
During his visits, on his way to the district headquarters, Palaniswami had stopped his convoy on many occasions to interact with the farmers, children, and others and sometimes, advised the people to wear face masks compulsorily to prevent the spread of Corona infection by distributing face masks.
In his speeches, the Chief Minister touched on the local issues pertaining to that district and promised to resolve them at the earliest and initiated many developmental and welfare schemes besides making key announcements. Apart from distributing welfare assistance to the people, he also inaugurated important schemes while laying foundation for many key projects.
While these travels had given him much visibility, interestingly the CM started his travel only after a jibe from the opposition leader MK Stalin. Stalin had in June commented that Palaniswami is visiting only his native Salem district and not to any other part of the state. In response to this, Palaniswami declared that he will be visiting all the districts in the state.
In his last leg of the trip, Palaniswami will be visiting Karur, Ariyalur, and Perambalur districts this week.
During the past few months, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam overhauled the party apparatus by appointing new organising secretaries, bifurcation and trifurcation of the party districts for better coordination and to distribute responsibilities, aimed at winning the Assembly elections. On October 7, Palaniswami was announced as the chief ministerial candidate of the party for the 2021 Assembly elections, nearly consolidating his position within the party apparatus.