The general council meeting of the DMK on Friday witnessed uproarious scenes when supporters of party treasurer M.K. Stalin shouted down former Minister and Salem district secretary Veerapandi S. Arumugam.
While addressing the meeting, Mr Arumugam, a strong critic of Mr Stalin, had said it would not augur well for the party if one section in the South was led by one son and another section in the North by another son. Union Minister M.K. Alagiri and Mr. Stalin's elder brother, who attended the meeting in the morning, was absent in the afternoon.
As there were more supporters of Stalin in the meeting hall, they took objection when Mr. Arumugam said any of the leader's sons could succeed him.
They said only Mr. Stalin could be the leader and raised slogans in his support before surging ahead towards the dais occupied by party president M. Karunanidhi, general secretary K. Anbazhagan, Mr. Stalin and others. Mr. Arumugam was forced to end his speech. Dismayed over the developments, Mr. Karunanidhi announced that he would leave the meeting and refused to make a speech. He was pacified by Mr. Stalin and others.
In his speech, Mr. Karunanidhi alleged that some goondas had entered the meeting in the guise of supporting Mr Stalin and had tried to drive a wedge in the party though Mr Arumugam had not said anything objectionable.
He said their action had not helped Mr Stalin. “I am upset that this incident has caused a blot on him before assuming an important post of the party,” he said. Later, when reporters asked about the problem, Mr. Karunanidhi said there was no dispute over the leadership of the DMK since the general council had nothing to do with the election for president post.
When his attention was drawn to a survey conducted by a Tamil magazine that he should retire from active politics, Mr. Karunanidhi said even his wives were also urging him to retire. “But I am not able to retire.”
On the survey showing that 58 per cent favoured Mr. Stalin as his successor, he asked, “Will I deny such an honour to my son?”
