Chennai, Jul 16 (IANS): The opposition AIADMK in Tamil Nadu will conduct its organisational elections soon and an announcement will be made on the same in a week's time.

Last week, the party conducted a meeting of district general secretaries and state office-bearers at its headquarters in Chennai and decided to conduct the polls.

The organisational elections were last held in 2014 when the late J. Jayalalithaa was elected the party general secretary with a massive mandate.

However, in the coming elections, there is much at stake as the party's power structure is now controlled by its coordinator and joint coordinator, former Chief Minister K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam, respectively, who are the main contenders for the top posts this time.

It is to be noted that the rift between the two will again come to the fore during the organisational elections and the party leadership at the grassroots level is already in preparatory mode for the polls which will be spread over a period of four to six months.

Elections will be held for party office-bearers for the branch, town, corporation, and district level with each unit electing nine members.

Interestingly, the AIADMK had amended its bylaw in 2019 to keep V.K. Sasikala at bay. According to the new bylaw, a person who is contesting for the posts of coordinator or joint coordinator should continuously be a member of the party for five years in a row without any break.

A person who has left the party on his/her own or has been removed by the coordinator or the joint coordinator will cease to be a member of the party, according to the amended bylaw.

This, according to a senior leader, was clearly formulated to check Sasikala, as she was removed from the party after she was sentenced to prison for amassing wealth disproportionate to her income.

According to the amended bylaw, the coordinator and joint coordinator will be elected by the general council.

The bylaw states that the secretaries of unions, municipalities and districts and secretaries of the state units are members of the general council owing to the position they hold.

The amended bylaw also has provisions for the coordinator and joint coordinator to nominate 100 members to the general council.

There will be organisational elections for the posts of district secretaries and these district secretaries will have a voice in the election of the coordinator and the joint coordinator in the general council.

S. Sivasankar, journalist and social activist based out of Madurai, told IANS, "The coming AIADMK organisational elections will be keenly watched in Tamil Nadu as this is the first election after the period of Jayalalithaa, who was holding the powerful post of general secretary since 1988 until her death in 2016. The organisational elections may lead to an open fight between Panneerselvam and Palaniswami."