Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam south zone organising secretary M.K. Alagiri on Thursday said he would be a contestant in the event of an election to the DMK leadership.
Responding to reporters' queries at the Chennai airport before leaving for Madurai, Mr. Alagiri, who returned to Chennai on Wednesday night after a foreign trip, said that he agreed with DMK president and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's position that it was for the party to decide on the leadership issue.
On his interview to a Tamil journal a week ago in which he had stated that he would not accept anyone as leader after Mr. Karunanidhi, the Union Minister said he had spoken according to his conscience. It was his right to express his views.
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To a question whether he would accept Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin as his leader, Mr. Alagiri, who called on Mr. Karunanidhi earlier, countered, “Why should we discuss this when Kalaignar is alive?”
Stalin's stand
Reacting to a query on the ‘unrest' within the party that even acted as a dampener in the party's celebrations over the victory in the Pennagaram by-election, Mr. Stalin, told reporters in Coimbatore that “ripples are there only on the side of the media and not on our side.”
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He was in Coimbatore to review the preparations for the World Classical Tamil Conference with senior government officials.