Stalin-Alagiri slugfest before polls

Madurai/Tiruchy: It is no longer sibling rivalry in the DMK. Now, it is an outright war between the bro­t­hers. The two sons of DMK’s first family It is no longer sibling rivalry in the DMK. Now, it is an outright war bet­ween the brothers. The two sons of DMK’s first family — M.K. Alagiri and M.K.Stalin — have started slugging it out in the open.

Alagiri had in a no-holds-barred intervi­ew to a TV channel on Sunday reiterated he would accept none except his father Ka­r­un­anidhi as his leader, making it clear he was unhappy at the importance younger brother Stalin has been receiving.

He also accused the leadership of not consulting him on decisions despite he being the south zone org­an­ising secretary. Sta­lin, who has been studi­o­u­sly stone­wa­lli­ng the media from getting any sensational bytes on that Sunday interview, hit back at Ala­giri a day later at the media interaction during his trip to Tiruchy, where he had gone to oversee the preparatory work for DMK conference next mo­nth.

Dismissing his bro­ther and his unsolicited opinion about the probable alliance bet­w­een DMK and Vijay­kanth’s DMDK, Stalin said he was not used to seeing news clips or programmes that were “of no significance”. It was obvious he was referring to Alagiri’s as­sertion that he wo­uld not accept anybo­dy other than Karu­na­nidhi as his leader.

In the past, Stalin used to parry questio­ns about Alagiri. Tho­ugh he hit back at his brother’s veiled att­a­ck, Stalin reserved his comments about the disbanding of the Ma­d­urai urban district unit saying it was a decision taken by the party president and ge­neral secretary.

An insider points out that Stalin would not have reacted openly wi­thout the green signal from his fa­ther Ka­run­anidhi who has be­en piqued over the latest developments in Ma­durai wh­en the DM­K should be readying itself for the fast-approaching Par­lia­ment poll.