<p>Senior DMK leader Durai Murugan, one of the close confidants of late M Karunanidhi, will continue to be the party’s treasurer as his resignation from the post has been kept in abeyance for now.</p>.<p>DMK President M K Stalin said the General Council of the party could not be convened due to the COVID-19 situation and ordered Durai Murugan to continue in the post of treasurer, no.3 in the pecking order. </p>.<p>The announcement came on a day the DMK celebrated the 97th birth anniversary of Karunanidhi.</p>.<p>Durai Murugan resigned as treasurer of the DMK in mid-March as he expressed his interest to contest the elections for General Secretary, a post that fell vacant after incumbent K Anbazhagan died on March 7. Stalin accepted Durai Murugan’s resignation and announced that elections for both general secretary and treasurer will be held on March 29.</p>.<p>However, the elections could not happen as the General Council meeting was postponed due to COVID-19. As both the posts are vacant for over two months, Stalin said in a statement on Wednesday that the atmosphere is not conducive to conduct elections for the two posts by convening the General Council.</p>.<p>“Based on this, I announce that Durai Murugan will continue as the treasurer of the party as I have kept in abeyance his resignation from the post of treasurer by exercising powers accorded to me in the party by-laws,” Stalin said.</p>.<p>Durai Murugan is likely to succeed Anbazhagan, who held the post from 1977 till his last breath on March 7, as the fourth general secretary of the party, at least a few months later.</p>.<p>Former Union Minister A Raja, a prominent Dalit leader, former state ministers E V Velu and I Periyasamy and party’s parliamentary party leader T R Baalu are said to be in the race for the Treasurer's post as and when elections are held. There is also clamour for Kanimozhi, Stalin’s half-sister, to be elevated to the Treasurer’s post.</p>.<p>Anbazhagan, who was General Secretary of the DMK for 43 years and a fellow traveller of its patriarch M Karunanidhi for more than six decades, died on March 7 due to age-related illness.</p>
<p>Senior DMK leader Durai Murugan, one of the close confidants of late M Karunanidhi, will continue to be the party’s treasurer as his resignation from the post has been kept in abeyance for now.</p>.<p>DMK President M K Stalin said the General Council of the party could not be convened due to the COVID-19 situation and ordered Durai Murugan to continue in the post of treasurer, no.3 in the pecking order. </p>.<p>The announcement came on a day the DMK celebrated the 97th birth anniversary of Karunanidhi.</p>.<p>Durai Murugan resigned as treasurer of the DMK in mid-March as he expressed his interest to contest the elections for General Secretary, a post that fell vacant after incumbent K Anbazhagan died on March 7. Stalin accepted Durai Murugan’s resignation and announced that elections for both general secretary and treasurer will be held on March 29.</p>.<p>However, the elections could not happen as the General Council meeting was postponed due to COVID-19. As both the posts are vacant for over two months, Stalin said in a statement on Wednesday that the atmosphere is not conducive to conduct elections for the two posts by convening the General Council.</p>.<p>“Based on this, I announce that Durai Murugan will continue as the treasurer of the party as I have kept in abeyance his resignation from the post of treasurer by exercising powers accorded to me in the party by-laws,” Stalin said.</p>.<p>Durai Murugan is likely to succeed Anbazhagan, who held the post from 1977 till his last breath on March 7, as the fourth general secretary of the party, at least a few months later.</p>.<p>Former Union Minister A Raja, a prominent Dalit leader, former state ministers E V Velu and I Periyasamy and party’s parliamentary party leader T R Baalu are said to be in the race for the Treasurer's post as and when elections are held. There is also clamour for Kanimozhi, Stalin’s half-sister, to be elevated to the Treasurer’s post.</p>.<p>Anbazhagan, who was General Secretary of the DMK for 43 years and a fellow traveller of its patriarch M Karunanidhi for more than six decades, died on March 7 due to age-related illness.</p>