Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam restructures district units, party polls soon

CHENNAI: DMK today restructured its district-level units, almost doubling it to 65, in a bid to revitalise the party ahead of the assembly elections in 2016 in tune with the recommendations of a six-member committee.

The decision to create new district units had been taken based on the recommendation of the committee of senior party leaders, DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan said in a party release here.

The union and town level units which would come under the jurisdiction of newly-formed district units would be announced shortly, he said.

"Thereafter, organisational polls for district, union and town-level party units will be held," he said.

DMK has effected significant changes in its district units by bringing in decentralisation by way of adding up more district units.

For instance, in Chennai the party had two district units south and north. Now it has been expanded to four (north, south, east and west). Similarly, Madurai and Coimbatore will have four party districts now.

The DMK set up a six-member team of senior party leaders on June 5 to recommend measures to restructure its district units ahead of the assembly elections in 2016.

The panel was named two days after DMK chief Karunanidhi's observation on his birthday on June 3 that decisions on certain issues will make the party a "sharpened sword".

It comprised S Thiruvengadam, T S Kalyanasundaram, R Rajamanickam, former minister Thangam Thennarasu, MLA, advocate K S Radhakrishnan and S L T Sachidanandam.

The panel has recommended more decentralisation of powers for better party work at the grassroots level.

DMK has been contemplating and acting on several plans to enhance the confidence of party cadres, demoralised in the backdrop of its rout in the recent Lok Sabha polls in which it drew a blank.

Ruling AIADMK led by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in a splendid show won 37 of the 39 seats, leaving one seat each to BJP and its ally PMK.