In a climbdown from his position of not accepting anyone other than his late father M. Karunanidhi as the leader of the DMK, former Union Minister M.K. Alagiri on Thursday said he was ready to work under the leadership of his younger brother M.K. Stalin, if readmitted to the party.
Mr. Alagiri was expelled from the party in 2014 for anti-party activities, and attempts at a patch-up have failed since.
After holding discussions with loyalists in Madurai in connection with a silent rally planned by him to pay homage to Karunanidhi in Chennai on September 5, Mr. Alagiri said that he was ready to rejoin the DMK to save the party, but added that “they [Mr. Stalin and others] are not ready to admit me.”
To a pointed question on whether he would accept the leadership of the newly elected party president, he said, “When (I) have the wish to join the party, (I) will have to accept the leadership.”
Mr. Alagiri had earlier said that the DMK would never win an election under Mr. Stalin’s leadership and that he would not accept anyone other than Karunanidhi as leader.
Though he appeared to have softened his stand against his younger brother, Mr. Alagiri held that the DMK general council was not the party per se. When asked about the general council having elected Mr. Stalin as president, he said that 1,500 members of the general council do not form the entire party. “The real party cadre are with me. The numbers will go up after the (September 5) rally,” he said, adding that over a lakh would participate in the rally. Mr. Alagiri, a one-time DMK strongman in Madurai and former south zone organising secretary, also clarified that neither he nor his son, Dhayanidhi Alagiri, has sought any party post as a precondition to joining the DMK. Soon after Karunanidhi’s death, Mr. Alagiri had alleged that the party’s assets and funds were being misused. He had also said that he would never be taken back into the DMK as party leaders feared that he would question their misdeeds.
Second-rung leaders of the DMK, when asked about Mr. Alagiri’s climbdown, refused to comment. The party leadership has instructed them to ignore any remarks made by Mr. Alagiri.
