Months before polls, Jayalalithaa overhauls office-bearers at AIADMK HQ

CHENNAI: With just a few months left for the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK general secretary and chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday effected changes in the party and brought in eight new faces to helm the affairs of party headquarters.
Veteran politician Panruti S Ramachandran, who quit Vijayakanth’s DMDK in 2013 and joined the parent party, is one among the six new organizing secretaries of the party.
In a surprise move, Jayalalithaa dropped senior leader and former assembly speaker PH Pandian and Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC) chairman Aadirajaram (both organising secretaries) and deputy speaker Pollachi V Jayaraman (secretary of elections wing) from their respective posts.
Sources said the move was an attempt to overhaul the functioning of the party headquarters.
The party unanimously elected Jayalalithaa as the general secretary for the seventh time in August last year. “In continuation of which, the office-bearers have been appointed for the respective posts,” she said, releasing the list of 41 office-bearers for the headquarters, including her.
At least 30 office-bearers of various wings, including IT, literary, minorities, health, legal, fisheries, students and women, have been retained. Jayalalithaa urged the party men to extend support to the new leaders.
The new organising secretaries included S Valarmathi (Srirangam MLA), A Pappasundaram (Kulithalai MLA), K Gopal (Nagapattinam MP) and J Jeyasingh Thiyagaraj Natterjee (Tuticorin MP).
TN Arasu Cable TV Corporation chairman Udumalai K Radhakrishnan is the new secretary of elections wing, the post previously held by Pollachi V Jayaraman.
While PK Vairamuthu (Thirumaiyam MLA) will head the agriculture wing, the post which fell vacant following the death of K Thangamuthu. The former TNSCB chairman died in July due to illness.