Chennai, Jan 29- Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M Karunanidhi on Tuesday disclosed that Alagiri was suspended the day he lashed out against his brother using “harsh words”.
“He even said Stalin would die in few months. How can a father tolerate this? I don’t know why Alagiri has nurtured hatred against Stalin,” the DMK chief said in a press conference in Chennai. Karunanidhi also hinted that his elder son, suspended from the party for indiscipline, would not be reinstated very soon.
Amid strains in DMK’s first family over leadership squabbles, DMK had finally expelled Alagiri on Friday last week.
In a statement, DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan had said Alagiri was creating confusion in the party by urging party cadres not to work and criticising the disciplinary action taken by the party against some members for their anti-party activities.
There were reports that Alagiri had suggested against a DMK-DMDK tie-up and if these were true then “there is no connection between them and DMK,” Karunanidhi said, seeking to distance himself from Alagiri’s remarks.
Karunanidhi’s warning came a day after Alagiri’s younger brother Stalin snubbed him at Tiruchirappalli, welcoming his party’s alliance with DMDK besides quipping that he doesn’t read such “unnecessary news items,” when asked about Alagiri’s reported views against any tie-up with Vijayakanth’s party.
Differences between Alagiri and Stalin are well-known with both sparring on the issue of who is the political heir apparent to Karunanidhi.
While the 90-year-old DMK chief had at times hinted that Stalin could well be his successor, Alagiri had challenged that, saying he would not accept anyone other than Karunanidhi as his leader.
Over 80 per cent of the DMK is solidly behind Stalin and Karunanidhi announced in January 2013 that he would propose Stalin’s name for DMK’s top post in case of an election in the general council.
Alagiri, who is based in Madurai, enjoyed his clout in a few pockets of southern districts of the state.
He has had a love-hate relationship with the DMK high command for several years and was suspended from the party during the 2001 Assembly elections for anti-party activities.
In 2003, Alagiri was arrested in the Tha. Kiruttinan murder case by the J. Jayalalithaa government. He was acquitted in 2008.
But he again shot into infamy when his supporters burnt the offices of Tamil daily Dinakaran owned by the Maran brothers in May 2007 when the newspaper carried a survey which suggested that Stalin was the preferred choice of successor in the DMK after Karunanidhi.
The survey gave two per cent support base to Alagiri.
Angered by this, Alagiri’s supporters burnt Dinakaran office and three of the paper’s employees burnt to death.
However, the family got reunited in 2008 December.
-Indiatoday
