AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Saturday announced the core team that will lead the party’s Information Technology wing.
R. Balu of Dharmapuri, who has an M.Tech and MBA to his credit, is its new president. Many of the new office-bearers are domain experts in various technologies and media. At least six of them are MBAs and others have either degrees or masters in IT and all of them are also long-time members of the party, sources said.
With State Assembly elections scheduled next year, the appointment of this new team is pertinent for the party which used Facebook and WhatsApp extensively during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections for campaigning. Even before that, in the run up to the 2011 Assembly election, video clips were circulated through MMS and using bluetooth technology. The party has also integrated IT in its day-to -day functioning, sources said.
Ms. Jayalalithaa had created the IT wing in February 2014 fully realising the potential of new generation media. “Information technology has helped the party during election campaigning and also to reach out to youngsters,” an office-bearer said.
The other office-bearers are as follows: N. Sharmila Vinodkumar and K. Anbuchezian (both from Chennai) are vice-presidents; Prasanna Azhagarsamy (Tiruvallur), R. Rajmohan (Virudhunagar), G. Karthikeyan (Tiruvallur), and G. Ramachandran (Coimbatore) are joint secretaries.
Deputy secretaries G. D. Thirumalavasan, T. Prasad, S. Balamurugan and K. Karthik are from Chennai and K. Shanmugavel is from Tirunelveli. S. T. Dharmesh Kumar (Tiruvallur), with an M.Sc., in IT is the treasurer. In a statement here, Ms. Jayalalithaa urged party cadres to extend full cooperation to the newly appointed office-bearers.
Meanwhile, as part of National Sports Day on Saturday, Amma Sports Foundation launched an awareness campaign titled ‘Sports awareness on wheels’ in which a specially designed high-tech vehicle will go on a road trip to 32 districts in the State.
“Information technology helped the party during campaigning and to reach out to youngsters”
