Suspended DMK leader MK Alagiri (File photo)
Former union minister
MK Alagiri's suspension from the DMK on grounds of "indiscipline" may have cleared the line of succession planned by party chief M Karunanidhi, but it carries the inherent danger of rendering the party's southern flank vulnerable just before general elections, due by May.
Mr Alagiri, 62, built the DMK's organizational structure in the southern parts of the state, comprising the districts of Madurai, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Theni and Dindigul and catapulting it as a strong challenger to Ms J Jayalalithaa's AIADMK.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the DMK-led alliance bagged eight of the nine seats in the region. Mr Alagiri himself won comfortably from his stronghold Madurai. A reluctant Mr Karunanidhi had to acknowledge his contribution by forwarding his name for a Cabinet berth in the Manmohan Singh government.
The news of Mr Alagiri's suspension last week would thus have been received warmly at Poes Garden, the residence of chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
The suspension has also removed the biggest stumbling block in the DMK's plans to forge a pre-poll alliance with actor Vijaykanth's DMDK and will enhance the Karunanidhi-led party's dependence on the latter.
Mr Karunanidhi was emboldened to act against his estranged older son reportedly only after being convinced that a tie-up with Mr Vijaykanth will offset the hit the party will take in the south of the state. The DMDK was born in Madurai in 2005, and has, over the years, developed strong roots in the region.
Younger son MK Stalin, whose path to the DMK throne has now been cleared, has made a concerted bid to chip away at his older brother's support base in the southern districts, and has successfully weaned away many of his loyalists, rendering him considerably weak.
Mr Alagiri is known to be aggressive and belligerent. He does not make lengthy speeches. He was feared not just by the DMK's political opponents in Tamil Nadu, but also by his rivals within the party. But over the years, he also won the grudging admiration of his adversaries for helping the DMK strengthen its organizational base in southern Tamil Nadu, which had remained by and large loyal to the AIADMK since the days of MG Ramachandran.
Mr Alagiri was forced to shift his gaze to the south when Mr Stalin began playing commander of the northern regions of Tamil Nadu. He moved to Madurai in 1989, and had been steadily building the party there since.