Chennai, Sep 29 (IANS): Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK will hold the party general council meeting on October 9 to appoint its top office bearers.

In a statement, DMK senior general secretary S. Duraimurugan said that the exercise is to elect the President, General Secretary, Treasurer, and audit committee members.

In the party, the president, general secretary, and treasurer posts are generally elected unopposed and there are no possibilities of a change in that system.

Sources in the DMK told IANS that M. Appavu, who is one of the six audit committee members of the party, will not contest this time as he is already the Speaker of the state Legislative Assembly.

He will be replaced by another senior leader.

Meanwhile, Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, a former Union Minister, had recently resigned from the post of DMK's Deputy General Secretary.

She will be replaced by another senior woman leader of the party.

With Chief Minister M.K. Stalin being the DMK's president and trusted comrades including Duraimurugan controlling the party affairs, the general council meeting will be a smooth affair, the sources told IANS.

They added that Udayanidhi Stalin, the Chief Minister's son and leader of the party's youth wing leader, will be the main attraction at the October 9 meeting

Udayanidhi is also an MLA from Chepauk.

C. Rajeev, Director of the Chennai-based Centre for Policy and Development Studies think tank, told IANS: "The DMK has turned into a family party rather than a cadre one now. The party is now in the tight grip of Stalin and his family. The possibility of Udayanidhi Stalin stealing the limelight is a reality and he is the next big thing as far as DMK is concerned."