File photo: MK Alagiri, DMK chief Karunanidhi's elder son
Hours after he was expelled from the DMK, politician MK Alagiri has made it clear he will not go quietly.
Mr Alagiri says he will move court challenging the expulsion. "DMK did not send me a notice and no explanation was sought... I was willing to apologise," he said.
"None can say DMK doesn't belong to me. Doesn't mean we would go out. DMK headquarters was built using my hard work too," he added.
Mr Alagiri had been suspended for indiscipline in January, excluded from his party's list of candidates for the national elections a few weeks ago, and then pink-slipped today by his father and DMK chief, M Karunanidhi.
Mr Alagiri, 63, has over the last few years turned into a professional renegade, transacting in a protracted and clanging campaign against his younger brother, MK Stalin, who has been chosen by their father as his political successor.
Mr Karunanidhi, 89, said today that Mr Alagiri was expelled because despite his suspension, he has not abstained from public criticism of the party in recent months.
Without naming his sibling, Mr Alagiri had professed recently that his father was being influenced and misled by "traitors."
Mr Alagiri represents Madurai in the Lok Sabha. Any conciliatory effect of his declaring that he would not launch his own party till after the election was over-written by his meetings leaders of the BJP and its allies in Tamil Nadu.
The fraternising suggested that Mr Alagiri and his supporters were not above working against the DMK's candidates despite their demurrals.
Mr Alagiri also recently championed Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, declaring that there is "a Modi wave" in India.