CHENNAI: DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin urged district secretaries and in-charges of the party, during the video conference meeting held on Thursday evening, to give utmost priority to women’s wing functionaries in seats reserved for women. With this, he has indirectly cautioned functionaries against allocating seats to wives of local leaders to please them.
To draw up strategies for urban local body polls, the DMK convened a video conference meeting with party district secretaries, in-charges and elected representatives. According to sources, during the meeting, Stalin urged the functionaries to settle seat-sharing talks with alliance partners amicably at the district-level as soon as possible and hit the campaign trail at the earliest.
The chief minister further asked them to highlight the achievements and welfare measures of the government during the campaign. Since 50 per cent of local body seats are reserved for women, the Chief Minister urged the functionaries to give utmost priority to women wing functionaries. It may be noted that it is a usual practice in all political parties to allocate seats reserved for women to wives of district-level leaders.
The CM’s decision would help in strengthening the women’s wing, and eventually, the party too would benefit, sources said.
It’s make or break for PMK
The party broke the alliance with AIADMK after the Assembly polls in its efforts to emerge as an alternative to the Dravidian majors. The last year’s rural local body poll results were not very encouraging. The party managed to win only 47 union councilor seats out of 1,381 and failed to bag even a single district councilor seat out of 140. The party needs to put up a good show, at least in the northern districts where it has its strongest base. Among the 21 city corporations facing polls, seven are in northern districts. Similarly, one-third of the other local bodies fall in northern districts. Since the party is facing the polls without being in alliance with the Dravidian parties, the outcome will be considered as a measure of the party’s electoral strength.