Chennai: The DMK high command on Thursday suspended organising secretary P.V. Kalyanasundaram from the party.
They cracked the whip a day after he shot off a letter to president M. Karunanidhi, tendering his resignation while demanding, among other things, that Stalin be declared as the DMK’s CM candidate during the 2016 state elections.
Known to be a Stalin loyalist, Kalyanasundaram also wanted the party to keep at bay ‘scam-tainted’ A. Raja, Kanimozhi and Dayanidhi Maran. He also demanded that all the tainted party functionaries should be dumped and secretaries be appointed to all the 62 reorganised district units of the DMK. All his demands had figured in the suggestions made by Stalin as remedies for the setback the party suffered in the recent Lok Sabha election and the 2011 state polls.
Some party insiders interpreted this as an attempt to pressure Karunanidhi to make way for his son for the top slot in the DMK. But the high command was not amused. General secretary K. Anbazhagan in a statement dubbed Kalyanasundaram’s letter as an act of indiscipline and announced his suspension from the party and all the posts he held.
Kalyanasundaram’s suspension has been announced the same day that Stalin launched his two-month tour of the state to meet the cadres and rejuvenate the DMK for the 2016 assembly elections.
He has been of late showing great vigour like never before. Even long-timers in the party saw in his earlier offer of resignation taking responsibility for the rout suffered in the LS poll, as an attempt to take over party leadership that went awry. In any case, the choice of candidates showed that Stalin was in total command.
The usually inaccessible Stalin has announced he would be available for the cadres anytime. “He is already in control. Even this Kalyanasundaram suspension is only to appease the rest of the Kalaignar loyalists. He will be back in the party pretty soon,” quipped a senior functionary.
