Chennai: Founder president of the Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), actor Vijay, is said to be bogged down by the inexperience of his nascent party’s functionaries and workers in election related work that the party had to make an announcement urging cadre to carry out their own campaign to create an awareness on the ongoing revision of draft electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Though all party workers, particularly the booth committee members and polling agents of established parties, start their election related work even as the ECI starts its revision of electoral rolls, in TVK the grassroots workers had to be conscientized on the procedures, which seasoned political workers take to like fish to water.
So raising the booth committees, whose members form the party’s final and crucial link to the voter, had become an arduous task for the TVK with the elections just over a year away and the clock ticking fast. Not only the present army of cadre have no exposure to electoral warfare but also the present crop of leaders remain clueless on how to guide the foot soldiers.
A bid by the party high command to rope in experienced political leaders into the rank and file had to be shelved as those seasoned politicians, whether they have retired from active politics or remained dormant in other parties, are said to be aspiring for key posts in the party, which cannot be conceded, taking into account the sentiments of the erstwhile fan association members forming the backbone.
So Vijay is said to have told the party general secretary N Anand to go on a whirlwind tour to take stock of the situation at the grassroots level of the party, which is now populated by political novices, to identify persons with political knowledge and experience to take up the mantle of future leadership.
The party founder, too, is keen on touring the State and connecting with the grassroots level cadre and also the public at large to prepare the ground for the electoral battle. But at the ground, the young erstwhile fandom inhabitants were seemingly lost in the hustle and bustle of the political arena with their transition remaining incomplete.
With the party leadership caught in a dilemma, unable to move forward with the appointment of office-bearers and launching their political and campaign activities at the grassroots level, Vijay is said to have asked the leaders to set things in order to enable the TVK make the next move after the massive show of strength on October 27 at V Salai near Vikravandi in Villupuram district.
While the conference had given the jitters to some political parties, TVK has been unable to hit the political highway, which in the long run could also demoralize the newbie political workers, already lost in their new identity.
Though efforts were being earnestly made by the high command to prepare the cadre for the strenuous poll process soon and hitch the party to the political bandwagon now that the trolls, criticism, scoffing and nitpicking, provoked by the party launch, have now died down in the last fortnight, the party seems to be rudderless and caught in a tempest.
