This Week Tamil Nadu

AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa,now back as Chief Minister,has been going to town with her allegation against Union Home Minister P Chidambaram that he won his election fraudulently.

Candidate defeated by PC challenges another loss

AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa,now back as Chief Minister,has been going to town with her allegation against Union Home Minister P Chidambaram that he won his election fraudulently. Her losing candidate,R S Raja Kannappan,had filed a petition that has been with the Madras High Court for two years. As it turns out,Kannappan is not done petitioning. Having lost yet another tight election,this time to DMK regional heavyweight K R Periyakaruppan by a smaller margin,he has approached the court again with a petition that his rival influenced officials in charge of the election and that the EVMs were tampered with. His was not the sole election petition for this season. DMK leader and former deputy CM M K Stalins election has been challenged by his AIADMK rival Saidai S Duraisamy; former minister Thangam Thennarasus victory by opponent S Esakki Muthu; DMDK founder-leader Vijayakants election by an Independent candidate on the ground that officials erred in rejecting her papers.

Drubbed in elections,DMK seeks to rebuild at roots

Yet to recover from the unexpected drubbing it received in the Assembly elections,the DMK is mulling undergoing an organisational change that aims to restructure the party from the ground up. Right from its inception decades ago,the party has had a structure and hierarchy where district secretaries wield considerable influence. Now,after finishing third,behind even the DMDK,the DMK is considering splitting the district-level committees into smaller units based on Lok Sabha and Assembly constituency boundaries. The leadership has asked members of the general council to consider the suggestion and give their opinion by July 15. The executive committee and the general council of the party are set to meet in the third week of July where many recent developments and this suggestion will be discussed.

Given marching orders,Baalu wins time from High Court

Things go against leaders when they are out of power,with senior DMK leader T R Baalus a case in point. Baalu,former MP of South Chennai,had shifted base to Sriperumbuthur,just outside the city limits,for the last general elections. He was,however,allowed to keep the office space in the heart of Chennai that he had been using for 15 years as a camp office. This was over as soon as power changed hands in the state. Just two weeks after AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa assumed office,Baalu received a notice from the city Corporation,asking him to vacate the premises to accommodate the present MP from South Chennai whose requests in the past had been summarily dismissed. Baalu promptly moved the High Court,alleging that the notice was politically motivated and a vindictive act,and got an interim stay against the eviction.