File photo: MK Alagiri, DMK chief Karunanidhi's elder son
The latest episode of the family feud in the DMK was scripted today by MK Alagiri who told NDTV, "My father's tears should fall on my dead body." On the eve of his 63rd birthday, DMK chief Karunanidhi's elder son appealed to his supporters to keep calm and reiterated that he wasn't quitting the party.
Mr Alagiri's statements came on a day when his younger brother MK Stalin said, "Everyone who is born has to die someday." (
Read more...)The comment was not a study in profundity. It was a retort to Mr Alagiri, who reportedly forecast his brother's death "within the next three or four months" in a conversation held recently with their father.
(Alagiri said brother Stalin would die, reveals father M Karunanidhi)The prediction was divulged yesterday by Mr Karunanidhi, 89, as he explained his anguish over Mr Alagiri's "hatred" for his sibling. "How can a father tolerate this?" Mr Karunandhi asked reporters.
On Friday, Mr Karunanidhi suspended Mr Alagiri from the DMK for indiscipline. Mr Alagiri's infractions have been considerable, but the immediate provocation for his suspension was his open criticism of an alliance that Mr Stalin was trying to nurture with another regional powerhouse, the DMDK.
Mr Alagiri has said the punishment shocked him and is unwarranted. Mr Stalin today urged supporters not to burn effigies of his brother.
Mr Alagiri is popular and powerful in and around Madurai in Southern Tamil Nadu. Over recent years, the rivalry with his brother has created two distinct camps within the DMK, which has been distracting for a party that was voted out of power in 2011, and is now finalising its strategy for the approaching national election. (Alagiri's suspension may hurt the DMK in southern Tamil Nadu)
While the DMK was a part of the PM's coalition government, Mr Alagiri was reluctantly deputed as a Union minister to Delhi, a move that allowed his father to position Mr Stalin as his understudy in Tamil Nadu.