M K Stalin, president, DMK, began the process of fortifying the party for the upcoming Assembly election scheduled for March-April 2021. The tenure of the present assembly comes to an end in May 2021.
On Wednesday, the general council of he DMK elected Dorai Murugan as general secretary and former Union Minister TR Baalu as treasurer. A Raja, the 2G Spectrum scam accused has been brought back to the top leafdership of the party by promoting him to the post of deputy general secretary. K Ponmudi, former education minister too has been elevated to the post of deputy general secretary.
The post of general secretary has been lying vacant since March 2020 when the incumbent K Anbazhagan, the oldest active politician in the country, breathed his last at the age of 98.
He has been the party’s general secretary since 1977.
Election of Murugan and Balu is being seen as an attempt by Stalin to bring the party structure under his full control. The DMK, beaten in the assembly elections held in 2011 and 2106 is struggling hard to come back to power in Tamil Nadu.
The General Council meeting of the party held on Wednesday asked the Union Government not to go ahead with decision to implement the New Educatyion Policy 2020. “We are against the three-language policy and the Centre should not try to force Hindi on us,” said Stalin. He asked the AIADMK government to impress upon the Centre to have a comprehensive discussion on NEP 2020.