CHENNAI: DMK president MK Stalin has assured the district secretaries of his party that the party high command will not remove any of them until the 2021 assembly elections, the party sources told Express. This is significant as the party had deviated from its tradition under Stalin's leadership and the elected party functionaries were removed by orders of the party high command. This was much unlike his father M Karunanidhi's long regime.
As much as seven district secretaries, who were elected by internal party elections, were removed after Stalin became the president of the party. This had already raised concerns within the party since it was new for the party to have elected party functionaries removed from their posts. During Karunanidhi's time, even if the high command was unhappy with a district secretary, it waited till internal elections to replace the elected representative.
While in recent months such removal of the district secretaries did not happen, in the video-conference meeting with district secretaries on Sunday, Stalin had told them there won't not be any such changes until the 2021 general assembly elections.
Stalin had also said that there will not be any internal elections until the 2021 assembly elections and the internal elections for the vacant posts will be conducted after the assembly elections. He asked the district secretaries to take constructive steps to ensure victory of the party in the assembly elections.
A district secretary told Express, "This is a big relief for us since we are assured that we won't be removed from the post. Now we can focus on work for the next elections." The district secretaries in DMK especially play a major role in most of the election related matters, including recommendation of the party candidates.