In a sarcastic reaction to his father and DMK president M. Karunanidhi’s hint that his younger brother M.K. Stalin would be his successor in the party, Union Minister M.K. Alagiri on Friday invoked an analogy once used by his father in a bid to pay him in his own coin.
“The DMK is not a mutt,” he quipped at the Chennai airport when reporters asked him about Mr. Karunanidhi’s announcement that Mr. Stalin would carry forward his work. And he added, for good measure: “This is what our leader had said, and what Stalin himself had voiced in a recent interview.”
Mr. Karunanidhi had used the words in the past to quell speculation amid a raging succession row as to which of his two sons would take over the party mantle.
He had implied that the party was not a religious institution for a successor to be anointed by the incumbent, but one in which consultation at various levels was needed. However, his elder son has used the same remark to imply that the party leadership was not something that Mr. Karunanidhi could assign to Mr. Stalin on his own. Mr. Alagiri’s remark came a day after Mr. Karunanidhi said it would be Mr. Stalin who would continue his work after him.
Meanwhile, followers of party MP Kanmozhi seem to be making efforts to give her public visibility by putting up posters and releasing advertisements on the occasion of her birthday falling on Saturday. Kanimozhi, however, has in the past sought to explain that she did not encourage any coterie or specific group of followers, but considered all of them as DMK supporters.
Keywords: Karunanidhi remark, DMK succession issue, Stalin-Alagiri rivalry, sibling rivalry, M.K. Alagiri remark, succession plan
This kind of naming the leadership is not a good model for a party which
is calling itself as democratic party. Let the party members decide who
is who should lead.
Today or later the succession battle is bound to happen in DMK. This should not anyway deter the party bosses from taking a stand on this issue. Of all the children who are now in Politics from the Dr. Karunanidhi family, Mr. Stalin is better placed within the party as well as among the public. If Stalin once wins the battle for the top leadership, the remaining two (the big brother and the younger Sister) will join together and will become a thorn in the flesh for some time. But slowly they will have to fall in line with the leadership or may have to form a party. Any split in the party will only help the AIADMK and other minor parties. No wonder, even other parties help these two persons by promising many things. Eventually ,what each once deserves will be given by the Almighty .Hence with full faith let the Stalin camp with a cautious approach stakes the claim for the leadership. In all these things there is always a God’s plan and let things work as per His plan.
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