In a direct message to the DMK leadership on Wednesday, MK Alagiri, elder son of the late M Karunanidhi, former party president and five-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, made it clear that he could not be ignored anymore as he commanded a big following in the Dravidian major.
“All I want from the DMK leadership was the reinstatement of me and my followers who were expelled from the party at the instance of MK Stalin,” Alagiri told a TV news channel just before the commencement of the rally. He repeated his charge that the general council of the DMK that elected Stalin, his younger brother, as party chief, was a fake entity.
“The general council that met on August 28 to elect Stalin as president was constituted by Stalin jam-packing it with his henchmen. But the cadre is with me,” said Alagiri, who had hitherto confined his activities to southern Tamil Nadu. The rally held on Wednesday was Alagiri’s first foray into Chennai, considered as a forte of Stalin.
He also said that his late father had wanted his reinstatement into the DMK. “But by 2016, he fell ill and was fully under the control of Stalin. Whenever I met my father, he had told me that he wanted me back in the party and would do the needful for the same. But Stalin did not allow him to do anything,” said Alagiri.
The Madurai strongman reiterated his stance that he would not do anything to harm the DMK and would be a loyal party worker like he had been in the past. “But I want the DMK leadership to take me and my associates into the party,” he said.
Wednesday’s rally is seen by veteran DMK observers as Alagiri’s olive branch to the DMK leadership. “The fact that Alagiri could organise a rally like this in Chennai speaks volumes about his organisational skill. Stalin could ignore Alagiri at his own peril especially in the backdrop of the two assembly by-elections to be held at Thiruvarur and Thirupprankundram shortly,” said Ravindran Duraisamy, leading political commentator who has close ties with the Karunanidhi clan.
The RK Nagar bye-election held early this year saw the DMK finishing a poor third and forfeiting its security, a development unheard of during Karunanidhi’s lifetime. “Stalin has to answer for the R K Nagar fiasco. If he fails to win at least one of the by-polls, then there would be lot of fireworks in the DMK,” said Duraisamy.
The DMK leadership had been cautious while reacting to Alagiri’s statements. Durai Murugan, treasurer, and a close associate of Stalin, feigned ignorance when asked about Alagiri’s rally. A second rung leader, Ravi, who went to Chennai airport on Tuesday to receive Alagiri was ousted from the party without issuing any show-cause notice. “If this is the case, they may have to expel all the party activists in southern Tamil Nadu,” said Alagiri.
The rebel leader was accompanied by his son Dhaya and poestess daughter Kayalvizhi during Wednesday’s rally. Most of the participants in Wednesday’s rally were from Madurai and other southern regions of the State and were identifiable because of their distinct appearance as most of them are farmers, casual employees, farm workers and ordinary villagers.