Chennai: Not all in the DMK first family are happy. Party south zone organising secretary and Karunanidhi’s eldest son M. K. Alagiri of late is sulking and remains withdrawn as usual.
His discontent and indifference was conspicuous as he bluntly dismissed the abstention from the December 15 general council as his ‘prerogative’. “To participate or to not participate is my personal wish,” he told reporters here.
Asked if he were in the party still, an otherwise intemperate Alagiri responded in the affirmative and told reporters that he continues to discharge his duty. Alagiri, DMK insiders say, was not particularly happy with the party parting ways with the Congress and ruling out alliance with BJP, a decision widely believed to be advanced by his influential younger brother and party treasurer M K Stalin.
Seen by many as the lone Congress voice in the party, Alagiri chose to ‘accept’ instead of ‘welcoming’ the GC decision on electoral alliance, which was received jubilantly by party rank and file. In March last, when the DMK pulled out of the UPA, a reluctant Alagiri who was then Union fertiliser minister chose to tender his resignation separately. Party insiders however said that Alagiri should have attended the general council and voiced his dissent if he were to make his grievances heard by his party chief father.
Sources close to him said the Anjanenjan remains largely withdrawn of late, particularly after the murder of his trusted lieutenants Pottu Suresh. Even a few family members were learnt to have advised against him being proactive in politics of late.
Whether he accepts it or not, the balance remains tilted in his brother Stalin’s favour, more so after the recent general council, which, for outsiders, has redrawn the political equations in the state ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but changed equations among the siblings of the DMK’s first family.
