It turned out to be a memorable 63th birthday for rebel DMK leader MK Alagiri. While President Pranab Mukherjee greeted the former Union Minister, his father M Karunanidhi and many family members kept away from the celebrations. Though Alagiri was suspended from the DMK on January 24 for anti-party activities, three DMK MPs were there to celebrate with him.
According to the Madurai Police, more than 10,000 supporters from various southern districts of Tamil Nadu converged at the Marriage Hall in the city to greet their Anja Nenjan (braveheart).
The birthday boy, clad in his customary white cotton shirt and dhoti, thanked everybody for taking the pains to travel all the way to Madurai to greet him and be with him.
“This is the most memorable birthday in my life,” Alagiri told his supporters. “Birthday greetings came from Pon Radhakrishnan, chief of BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit,” said Satish, Alagiri’s close aide. “He is an old friend and I greet him every year on his birthday,” Radhakrishhnan told The Pioneer.
What added to the celebrations was the presence of three MPs of the DMK at Madurai. D Napoleon, the actor-turned-politician who is also a former Union Minister flew to the city from USA to proclaim his solidarity with his mentor. “I have come to wish Annan on his birthday and to send the message that he is my leader,” Napoleon told reporters.
JK Ritheesh and KP Ramalingam were the other MPs to call on Alalgiri on Wednesday and Thursday. Alagiri’s aides were tight lipped when asked whether Dayalu Ammal, his mother, had called and greeted him.
While the Kalaignar TV network owned by the Karunanidhi-clan chose to ignore the birthday celebrations at Madurai, it turned out to be a celebration for all other Tamil news channels.
The family feud hibernating for years have reached the peak with the siblings of the DMK leader fighting in the open arena. As political observers and leaders of other parties feel if it is a drama, there are DMK leaders who feel that it is a reality. They are at a loss to know what to do in the situation as the pattern in the DMK has been that whenever a crisis arose it was Karunanidhi who took the ultimate decision. But in this situation when the crisis had emanated from Karunanidhi’s family itself, party workers are at a loss to understand what decision the leader would take in the larger interest of the party which is actually at a crossroad now, more specifically because of the impending lok Sabha elections.