Chennai: DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Thursday categorically rejected the conditional truce offer made by his estranged son M.K. Alagiri.
Reacting to Alagiri’s statement that situation would arise to make peace only if disciplinary action against his loyalists were dropped, Karunanidhi said the party (leadership) would not tolerate when its members lodge false PCR complaint against party district secretary and executive committee members.
The party would not be a mute spectator when complaints were lodged and the police act upon the same, Karunanidhi added. Asked about DMDK leader Premalatha Vijayakanth describing the feud in his family as a ‘family drama’, Karunanidhi said that he did not know about ‘drama’ as much as she did.
In not greeting Alagiri on his birthday, the 90-year-old father-party chief has stated in no uncertain terms that he was in no mood to bury the hatchet.
Next: Patch-up mood marks Alagiri b’day
Patch-up mood marks Alagiri b’day
Madurai: A note of reconciliation between estranged son M.K.Alagiri and his father and DMK chief M.Karunanidhi was sounded amidst the din and bustle of a ruckus crowd that attended the former’s birthday bash in Madurai on Thursday.
Though senior functionaries including district secretaries and former MLAs and MPs refrained from attending the function, three MPs MP K.P. Ramalingam, D. Napolean and J.K. Ritheesh shared the dais with Alagiri on his 63rd birthday celebrations.
Ramalingam in a brief chat with the media said, “We are all one big DMK family. Anything such as this one (the spat between and the father and the son) will be solved very soon. Any difference of opinion will be sorted out shortly for the welfare of the party. Kalaignar is the leader for all of us."
An inside source also endorsed his views. “Misunderstanding between a father and a son is not uncommon in any household. Everything will be all right soon,” the source added.
This sentiment was expressed by his aides who organised the show. But, Alagiri remained sober as he preferred not to address his supporters despite shouts of demand from them. On the sidelines, he told the media that he would be ready for a rapprochement if his loyalists in Madurai were reinstated.
He said President Pranab Mukherjee, mother Dayalu Ammal, sister Selvi, brother Tamilarasu, actors Rajnikanth and Prabhu besides scores of his friends and well-wishers in the state and abroad wished him on his birthday. He, however, said neither his dad nor his younger brother Stalin greeted him.
Much prominence was given to Karunanidhi in the posters and flexes unlike a few days ago and the DMK flags fluttered across the city. Though young boys, aged between 16 and 25, clad in jean and tees outnumbered the cadres, a suspended DMK functionary claimed, “About 10,000 party workers who were affected by the irregularities in the organisational polls across the state took part in the bash to show their dissent.”
The unruly crowd on the dais threw the remains at eneficiaries and mediapersons after Alagiri cut a huge cake and offered a slice to his son Durai Dayanithi. A scuffle erupted between two groups of men right on the stage and the speakers and mikes were broken in the melee. Women in Alagiri’s family including wife Kanthi who otherwise used to participate in the celebrations at the public venue confined themselves to the cake-cutting ceremony in his residence.
