Will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against anybody: DMK chief
There is total confusion and chaos in the DMK’s first family. M Karunanidhi, the nonagenarian party chief, issued a strong warning on Tuesday to MK Alagiri, his sulking elder son, for his utterances against the party leadership. Karunanidhi said he would not hesitate to take disciplinary action against anybody who speaks against the party line.
“Whoever is giving statements contradicting that of the party line will be expelled from the primary membership of the DMK. A section of the media is giving out news with an eye to disrupt the possibilities of an alliance between the DMK and the DMDK. The DMK is not responsible if Alagiri has issued any statement like that. Those who issue anti-party statements will be expelled from the party irrespective of their stature,” Karunanidhi said in the statement.
The last couple of days have been filled with political fireworks in the DMK in the form of statements, counter-statements, muscle flexing and war cries. It all started with Alagiri’s interview to Puthiya Thalamurai, a 24x7 TV Tamil news channel.
After lying low since the DMK withdrew support to the Congress at the Centre and made party’s all representatives resign from the Union Council of Ministers, Alagiri told the channel that he was not consulted about the party’s move to withdraw support to the UPA. “I was a Union Cabinet Minister and the organising secretary of the party in the southern districts, but the party leadership did not consult me on important issues,” he said during the interview.
He also said any alliance with the DMDK would be detrimental to the interests of the DMK. Though the DMK leadership did not take these comments seriously, Alagiri infuriated his younger brother and party treasurer MK Stalin by making it known that he would not accept anybody other than Karunanidhi as the party chief.
“I don’t read irrelevant news,” Stalin told reporters at Tiruchi on Monday when he was asked about Alagiri’s interview to the TV channel.
Alagiri and Stalin are Karunanidhi’s children from Dayalu Ammal, his second wife. Though Dayalu has two more children Selvi and Tamil Arasu, they are busy looking after the vast family estates and properties. Kanimozhi is Karunanidhi’s one and only daughter by Rajathi Ammal, his third wife.
The war of words between the brothers has upset the party’s top leaders. The DMK had to face a major crisis in 2001 when Alagiri, who is known as Ancha Nenchan (the brave heart), openly campaigned against the nominees of the party during the Tamil Nadu Assembly election. He ensured the defeat of all the prominent DMK candidates which ultimately led to the AIADMK sweeping the elections.
Alagiri is upset over Karunanidhi’s move to anoint Stalin as his heir apparent. last year, when Karunanidhi declared that in the event of his death, Stalin would take over the leadership of the party, Alagiri retorted that the DMK was not a Hindu Mutt where the pontiff handpicks his successor.
The DMK which has to bear a burden in the name of the Congress in Tamil Nadu has made it known that the party will not have anything to do with the Grand Old Party, its ally since 2004.
But Alagiri wants the DMK-Congress alliance to continue. As of now, the DMK which had cobbled up a rainbow alliance which included the Congress, CPI(M), CPI, Muslim league and other prominent regional parties, is left only with Puthiya Tamilagam, VCK (both Dalit outfits), and Manithaneya Munnetra Kazhagam, (an Islamic outfit). If it wants to survive the onslaught unleashed by the AIADMK in the form of popular measures targetting the poor people, the DMK has to perform miracles. It is at the most inappropriate time Alagiri has chosen to strike.
Since the poll debacle in 2011, Alagiri was being singled out by party leaders for all ills faced by the DMK. His son Durai Dayanidhi has been listed as an accused in the Rs 20,000 crore mining scam in Madurai. Alagiri’s name figured in the list of suspects prepared by the local police in connection with the murder of Pottu Suresh, his close confidante. Grapevines in Chennai are doing overtime to spread the news that the coronation of Stalin may get further delayed as Thatha (grand father) is in the best of health.
The DMK leadership is busy preparing for the State Conference of the party scheduled for February at Tiruchirappalli when Karunanidhi is expected to announce who would be the alliance partners for the forthcoming lok Sabha election.