This time, the scene may be different. Stung by the assembly poll debacle in Coimbatore district, the ruling party is on an aggressive drive to build its base ahead of the urban local body elections. Signs that the DMK high command is aspiring for a course correction in its Kongu strategy became clear when state electricity minister Senthil Balaji was deputed district in-charge for Coimbatore last year.
The ruling party has crafted a multi-pronged approach for ‘Mission Coimbatore’. The priority is to unify cadres and get them into mission mode. There were rumblings within the DMK that internal differences cost the party dearly in some constituencies in the 2021 assembly polls. “Some were warned, certain changes made in the party setup, but a lot more needs to be done,’’ said a senior functionary.
The next agenda was to strengthen the party by enrolling new members and poaching functionaries of other parties. “There are 30.8 lakh voters in Coimbatore district. You have to enrol 10 lakh new members in the party,’’ Balaji told booth committee members at a recent meeting.
As far as getting disgruntled leaders from other parties is concerned, former AIADMK MP Nagaraj who joined the DMK in the presence of chief minister M K Stalin last month was the first of many, say DMK men. Later, about 300 people from various parties including former town panchayat presidents joined the DMK in Mettupalayam. The party is organising an event on January 8 in Coimbatore to be presided by DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin to induct more functionaries.
The third on the agenda is reaching out to people. As soon as Senthil Balaji landed in Coimbatore he organised ‘Makkal Sabhai’ programmes in all the 100 wards of the Coimbatore corporation to collect petitions. Thousands of requests, ranging from better roads to old age pension, were received. The petitioners were promised that their concerns would be addressed.
As the ‘Makkal Sabhai’ meetings highlighted widespread grouse against roads, the DMK has embarked on a drive to repair and relay scores of roads. Balaji said the tender process was nearing completion for 280 more roads. Stalin, on his part, said `200 crore has been allotted for carrying out road projects.
Apart from taking up people’s issues, the DMK has focused on building a robust poll machinery by setting up booth committees. Coimbatore was the first to get booth committees for urban local body elections. Senthil Balaji has brought scores of men from his native Karur district to execute the strategies.
The DMK has formed 1,290 booth committees with 10 members each. DMK insiders say one representative from Karur will be in charge of 10 booth committees. The booth committees will be monitored by a central team that will interact with members and get daily updates.
“The booth committees will gather information about residents, how many are DMK members, those who have DMK inclination, voters who are neutral and those belonging to other parties. This will be communicated to the minister’s core team,’’ said a booth committee member.
Party cadres have been asked to devise micro-level strategies to prepare the ground for the polls. “In some wards there are civic issues which will bolster our prospects. Some wards may be vulnerable to the influence of other parties. So we will be tailoring our strategies according to pitches,’’ said another committee member.
The DMK functionaries are charged up. “Each of the booth committee members will have to meet 100 voters daily and spend at least 10 minutes with them,’’ said state youth wing deputy secretary Pynthamil Pari. He said the task was not just to win the local body election, but create a party base for the future. He pointed out that there were several fake or double entries on the voters list in the past. Booth committee members will scrutinise the list and ensure that there are no such issues.
The rival camps appear to lay low, but are unfazed. AIADMK urban district secretary Amman K Arjunan says the DMK has been working hard because they are weak. “They don’t have party infrastructure in Coimbatore. We have a strong set up; they are trying to catch up,’’ he said.
BJP leaders say there has been no change in the public mood since the assembly elections when Vanaathi Srinivasan defeated MNM’s Kamal Haasan by 1,728 votes. “The image of the DMK has only taken a beating because they have not fulfilled their poll promises,” said BJP district president R Nandakumar.
The BJP members said they have completed part of the ground work for urban local body elections. Nandakumar said they have appointed one functionary in-charge for 22 mandals, one for each ward, one representative for every five booths and one booth in-charge. “We are all set to face the polls on our own strength,” he said.
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