DNA Edit: Brothers in conflict – Stalin and Alagiri lock horns over DMK leadership

Less than a week after M Karunanidhi’s death, the rumblings of a succession rivalry in the DMK has become all too audible. MK Alagiri, Stalin’s elder sibling, has questioned the new Thalapathy’s leadership. Though Stalin’s position in the party appears unassailable at present, he still cannot be called the undisputed leader of the DMK because Karunanidhi deliberately kept the matter of succession an open-ended question. 

While on many occasions he openly endorsed Stalin’s leadership, there were times when he was ambiguous. This game of hide and seek went on till the very end, when at the age of 92, Karunanidhi insisted on becoming the CM if the DMK won in 2016. The wait for Stalin only got longer. Yet, the same Karunanidhi removed the thorns from Stalin’s way when he expelled Alagiri from the party and appointed Stalin as the party’s working president. Much before this, Stalin’s growing stature and political clout had fuelled discontent in DMK with Vaiko quitting the party in 1993 in protest against Karunanidhi’s dynastic politics. 

However, with the patriarch gone, Stalin’s adversaries will increasingly flex their muscles. He might be the chosen one, but Stalin is not a Karunanidhi who had earned his spurs in the struggles of Dravidian aspirations. Alagiri will try to undermine Stalin to weaken his position in the party. It shouldn’t come as a surprise if Alagiri had garnered support from some old-timers of the DMK. Stalin’s biggest support base should be the cadres. If he enjoys their absolute confidence, the battle is already won. But it’s too early to predict an outcome. Politics being a game of uncertainties, it would not come as a surprise if the DMK is faced with the danger of a split. The deaths of Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa have shaken their respective parties to the very core and left behind a vacuum in Tamil politics that may not be easily filled.