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No matter if it is going to be Annan or Thambi (the elder brother or younger), Maaman or Machaan (the uncle or the brother-in-law), we will all be doomed if we don't come together under the Thalaivar (Leader, M. Karunanidhi)''. When K. Anbalagan, 92-year-old general secretary of DMK, almost choked over his words at the party's emergency executive meet on March 25, it underlined the fractured party's desperation to pull itself together in its post-upa turbulence.
Out of power at the Centre and in no shape to take on J. Jayalalithaa's ruling AIADMK in the state, DMK is at the crossroads. The spreading fissures in the party were evident again when Karunanidhi's elder son and former Union minister M.K. Alagiri skipped the crucial post-upa pullout party meet in Chennai in a huff.DMK insiders say Alagiri was piqued that he was not consulted on the parting of ways with the Congress-led upa Government in which he was chemicals and fertilisers minister. What hurt more was that the move was piloted by his younger sibling M.K. Stalin. In January, Karunanidhi anointed Stalin as heir, leaving a still-fuming, openly recalcitrant Alagiri to scoff at the idea.
Alagiri made his displeasure clear earlier when he declined to join the group of DMK ministers who trooped into the Prime Minister's Office on March 20 with their resignations once the supremo blew the whistle in Chennai. Instead, he met the Prime Minister separately with his lone party loyalist in the upa Cabinet, Minister of State for Social Justice D. Napoleon, in tow. He also lost no time to call on Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Union ministers P. Chidambaram and G.K. Vasan in his individual capacity, even as his father was busy firing self-righteous salvos at the Congress for its alleged letdown on the Lankan Tamil issue. In another dissenting note, Alagiri rubbished Stalin's agitated claim that cbi raids on his and Stalin's homes only a day after the party left the upa on March 19 were acts of political vendetta.
Alagiri had called on his father in Chennai a day before the party's March 25 meet. DMK sources say he told Karunanidhi that he would stay away since he was not comfortable with quitting upa, a decision that he believed Stalin forced on his father. Sources say Stalin already has a major chunk of the party rank and file with him. "Once he became a Union minister, Alagiri used that to leverage some support from the ranks. Not any more. Apart from some obvious nuisance value, he does not mean much any longer," says political commentator Gnani Sankaran.Alagiri's woes began from the time Jayalalithaa came to power in May 2011. Over half a dozen of his close lieutenants were booked under the Goondas Act, 1923, for land-grabbing and sent to jail. Stalin used the diversion to thrust his own men into key party posts on Alagiri's turf.
A bigger body blow to Alagiri was when his closest henchman Pottu Suresh, whom Jayalalithaa had sarcastically described as the "de facto deputy chief minister of Madurai" way back in 2009, was murdered in Madurai on January 31 this year. The police say they are looking for 'Attack' Pandi, a history-sheeter who had crossed over to the Stalin camp from Alagiri's stable a year ago, in connection with the murder.
It's too early to say if the brothers will end up splitting DMK but the acid test could be if and when a no-confidence motion is moved against the upa Government. DMK itself has sobered up since leaving upa, with no strongly worded resolution passed against the Congress at the March 25 party meet. As things stand, the party does not want to antagonise the Congress after the necessary posturing, which works for Alagiri. Officially, the DMK leadership dismisses any possibility of a split. "It's rubbish. The party will stand as one under Karunanidhi," reacted Vasanthi Stanley, a DMK Rajya Sabha MP.
Karunanidhi's woes are compounded by the newfound ambition of his daughter Kanimozhi, whose Rajya Sabha term ends in August. While Stalin and Alagiri have been slugging it out, she has been trying to build her own turf, largely wooing those sidelined by Stalin, besides the sizeable Nadar community to which her mother Rajathi Ammal belongs. Sources say Stalin had to pressure Kanimozhi to abandon a large meeting of her supporters at Tindivanam, 140 km from Chennai, on March 23.
Kanimozhi may end up in jail again if the chargesheet in the 2G scam probe directly monitored by a two-judge Supreme Court bench nails her. The Joint Parliamentary Committee may also indict former Union telecom minister A. Raja when it tables its 2G report in Parliament in early May. That's the last thing DMK would want before the 2014 General Elections.
Clik here to view.
No matter if it is going to be Annan or Thambi (the elder brother or younger), Maaman or Machaan (the uncle or the brother-in-law), we will all be doomed if we don't come together under the Thalaivar (Leader, M. Karunanidhi)''. When K. Anbalagan, 92-year-old general secretary of DMK, almost choked over his words at the party's emergency executive meet on March 25, it underlined the fractured party's desperation to pull itself together in its post-upa turbulence.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Alagiri, Karunanidhi and Stalin.
Alagiri made his displeasure clear earlier when he declined to join the group of DMK ministers who trooped into the Prime Minister's Office on March 20 with their resignations once the supremo blew the whistle in Chennai. Instead, he met the Prime Minister separately with his lone party loyalist in the upa Cabinet, Minister of State for Social Justice D. Napoleon, in tow. He also lost no time to call on Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Union ministers P. Chidambaram and G.K. Vasan in his individual capacity, even as his father was busy firing self-righteous salvos at the Congress for its alleged letdown on the Lankan Tamil issue. In another dissenting note, Alagiri rubbished Stalin's agitated claim that cbi raids on his and Stalin's homes only a day after the party left the upa on March 19 were acts of political vendetta.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
A bigger body blow to Alagiri was when his closest henchman Pottu Suresh, whom Jayalalithaa had sarcastically described as the "de facto deputy chief minister of Madurai" way back in 2009, was murdered in Madurai on January 31 this year. The police say they are looking for 'Attack' Pandi, a history-sheeter who had crossed over to the Stalin camp from Alagiri's stable a year ago, in connection with the murder.
It's too early to say if the brothers will end up splitting DMK but the acid test could be if and when a no-confidence motion is moved against the upa Government. DMK itself has sobered up since leaving upa, with no strongly worded resolution passed against the Congress at the March 25 party meet. As things stand, the party does not want to antagonise the Congress after the necessary posturing, which works for Alagiri. Officially, the DMK leadership dismisses any possibility of a split. "It's rubbish. The party will stand as one under Karunanidhi," reacted Vasanthi Stanley, a DMK Rajya Sabha MP.
Karunanidhi's woes are compounded by the newfound ambition of his daughter Kanimozhi, whose Rajya Sabha term ends in August. While Stalin and Alagiri have been slugging it out, she has been trying to build her own turf, largely wooing those sidelined by Stalin, besides the sizeable Nadar community to which her mother Rajathi Ammal belongs. Sources say Stalin had to pressure Kanimozhi to abandon a large meeting of her supporters at Tindivanam, 140 km from Chennai, on March 23.
Kanimozhi may end up in jail again if the chargesheet in the 2G scam probe directly monitored by a two-judge Supreme Court bench nails her. The Joint Parliamentary Committee may also indict former Union telecom minister A. Raja when it tables its 2G report in Parliament in early May. That's the last thing DMK would want before the 2014 General Elections.