Troubles seem to have erupted in the DMK’s first family in less than a week after party patriarch M Karunanidhi’s death with his elder son and expelled leader MK Alagiri on Monday virtually challenging succession of his brother and party’s working president MK Stalin by claiming to have the support of his father’s loyal cadres.
Troubles seem to have erupted in the DMK’s first family in less than a week after party patriarch M Karunanidhi’s death with his elder son and expelled leader MK Alagiri on Monday virtually challenging succession of his brother and party’s working president MK Stalin by claiming to have the support of his father’s loyal cadres.
“I have come to express my grouse with my father. You will know what it is about. Kalaignar’s loyal supporters are with me. All the loyalists in Tamil Nadu are with me and they are supporting me. Only time will tell,” Alagiri said after paying respects at his father’s grave at Marina.
Alagiri, who was accompanied by his family members, also made it clear that his grouse was about the party, not the family.
Later, Alagiri told reporters at Karunanidhi’s Gopalapuram residence that he would inform the media in two or three days what he had expressed to his father.
Alagiri’s statement comes a day before DMK’s executive committee meets in the city to adopt a resolution condoling the death of Karunanidhi and also fix a date for the general council meeting which will formally elect Stalin as the party president. Sources in the DMK said that the general council would be convened in the first week of September after holding condolence rallies in four regions in the state which would culminate on August 30 with a massive rally in Chennai with the participation of national leaders.
Despite the new challenge thrown by Alagiri, Stalin is unlikely to feel threatened as his elder brother, who is not even a DMK member, does not enjoy any support among the party’s office bearers. A senior DMK leader said that Alagiri does not have any support among the cadres or at the office bearers level in the party. “He is out of the party for over four years now. There is no question of readmitting him,” the leader said.
When asked whether he would rejoin the DMK, Alagiri said that he did not know. “I don’t know about it. But I have expressed my remorse with Kalaignar,” he said. On the DMK’s executive committee meeting on Tuesday, he said that he was not aware of party’s executive meeting as he was not a member of the party.
Interestingly, the sign of all is not well in the DMK’s first family was at display even at the Rajaji Hall where Karunanidhi's mortal remains were kept for the public homage on Wednesday. Alagiri was not seen publicly at the Rajaji Hall when dignitaries from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and chief ministers of various states and leaders of several political parties came to pay tributes. Stalin and his step-sister and party Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi were standing beside Karunanidhi’s body while Alagiri was conspicuous by his absence.
Alagiri, however, joined his siblings at the Marina on Wednesday evening to pay respects and he was also present on Thursday when all the family members of the deceased leader paid homage at the Marina.
Alagiri was expelled from the DMK in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and he has been making statements criticising the functioning of his younger brother and then party treasurer Stalin ever since. After Karunanidhi was taken ill in October 2016, Stalin was promoted as party’s working president in January last year.
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