Tamil Nadu Opposition DMK party has convened its General Council meeting on Wednesday. The meeting, which was chaired by party president MK Stalin, has become the first in the party's history to be held online owing to the COVID-19 outbreak and the restrictions imposed by the government. 

During the virtual meeting, the party had seen the ascent of some of the senior leaders who have been appointed to the top posts of the party. DMK leader Duraimurugan has been appointed as the party's new General Secretary while TR Baalu has been appointed as the party's new Treasurer. MK Stalin has made the announcement that the two leaders have been elected unopposed. 

The prime agenda of the general council meeting was to elect the new general secretary and treasurer. The election has come as the sequel of the demise of the party's long time General Secretary K Anbazhagan, who passed away in March at the age of 97 due to illness. Following his demise, it was speculated that second line leader Duraimurugan, who was then treasurer, would become the new general secretary of the party. 

As speculated, Duraimurugan had resigned the post of the treasurer to get elected as the General Secretary. However, his resignation was put on hold in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, which deferred the party elections and general council meeting. Duraimurugan had continued to hold the post until the General Council meeting. As the party had recently announced that it would convene the council meeting, Duraimurugan had resigned from the post. 

Following his resignation, the race was on between the senior leaders for the post of Treasurer. The reports earlier said that the leaders like EV Velu, TR Baalu, A Raja, Ponmudi, and Jagathratchagan were vying for the post of Treasurer. However, during the election nominations, TR Baalu was the only leader who filed nomination for the post of the Treasurer whereas Duraimurugan was the only leader who filed nomination for the post of the General Secretary. 

As with no race, Duraimurugan and TR Baalu were all set to get elected for the top posts, and on Wednesday, DMK President MK Stalin had officially announced that Duraimurugan and TR Baalu have unopposedly been elected for the posts of General Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Along with these two leaders, senior leaders A Raja and Ponmudi have also been elected as Deputy General Secretaries on Wednesday. 

According to the reports, the election of A Raja as Deputy General Secretary has come when the party was flaked with the allegations that the DMK was not willing to appoint Dalit leaders to the top posts. With the new  Deputy General Secretaries, the DMK now has five deputy general secretaries and the party had amended its bylaws to allow five Deputy General Secretaries. 

The current DMK deputy General secretaries are I Periyasamy, Anthiyur Selvaraj, Subhulakshmi Jagadesan, A Raja, and Ponmudi. However, DMK's Women Wing President and Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi hasn't awarded any party post. The General Council meeting has been convened months ahead of the state legislative elections and days ahead of the legislative assembly session. The reports say that the party would discuss taking the ruling government in its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, economy, and controversial amendments.