Alagiri to sit out national election but may launch party after

Chennai: MK Alagiri, recently suspended from the DMK by his father, M Karunanidhi, will sit out the national election, but is considering launching his own party after that.

"Whatever it is, I will decide only after waiting for two months, after asking my supporters and analysing the situation," said Mr Alagiri, 63, today.

Soon after, his father, who heads the DMK, released a first list of candidates for the elections that begin next month. Mr Alagiri's name was not on it. His constituency, Madurai, has been reassigned to another party member.

There has been speculation that the former union minister will launch a party ever since he was suspended from the DMK for alleged attempts to undermine his younger brother, MK Stalin. Mr Karunanidhi, who is 89, picked Mr Stalin as his political successor, provoking chafing from his other son.

Mr Alagiri is popular among party workers in and around the southern Tamil Nadu town of Madurai.

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"Don't hurt me by asking about Alagiri," Mr Karunanidhi told reporters this morning as he announced the regional party's candidates.

He had earlier justified his older son's suspension saying he could not forgive Mr Alagiri for suggesting to him that Mr Stalin, who is 61, would die within a few months, and should therefore not be in a central position in the DMK.

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The DMK participated in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition till 2012; Mr Alagiri had been deputed as a union minister to Delhi, a move that he interpreted as an attempt to remove him from Tamil Nadu.