Ahead of the DMK’s emergency executive council meeting slated for Tuesday, late party leader M. Karunanidhi’s son M.K. Alagiri on Monday raised a banner of revolt against younger brother and party working president M.K. Stalin, alleging that the party’s assets and funds are being misused.
“They will never take me back into the party because I will question their wrongdoings,” he told The Hindu hours after creating a stir at the Marina, where he claimed that the “true loyalists” of Karunanidhi were with him.
Pays homage at Marina
Mr. Alagiri, who along with his family members paid homage to the patriarch at the Marina, told journalists, “I have come here to express my anguish to my father. You will not know what it is about now. The real loyalists of my leader Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) are with me. The loyalists across the State are supporting me. Time will provide an answer.” He said his anguish was over the party and had nothing to do with the family. Stating that he had no idea whether he would rejoin the DMK, from which he was expelled in 2014, he said, “I have expressed everything to (the soul of) Kalaignar.”
Later in an interview with The Hindu , he charged, “I know that the party’s assets and funds are being misused... They have stooped to the level of lending party’s funds for (earning) interest. The profits are not going to the party and everybody knows who is benefiting. If I am in the party, I will object to these activities. So they will not take me back. Attempts are being made to usurp the assets of the party.” Mr. Alagiri said he did not aspire to become a leader and preferred to remain a worker to strengthen the DMK like his father.
“The fundamental principles and ideologies of the party have been seriously compromised for personal interests,” he said.
According to him, in 2009 when he was offered a berth in the Union Cabinet he had requested the party leadership that it be given to others.
Asked if he believed he was still relevant electorally in south Tamil Nadu, Mr. Alagiri said, in 2009 he had persuaded the Congress to give the DMK the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat, a traditional bastion of national parties, and for the first time ensured a victory. “But in 2014 in the same seat the DMK was pushed to the fourth place. You know how the DMK fared in the subsequent 2016 Assembly elections,” he said.
He predicted that when the Thirupparankundram by-poll is held, the DMK will secure the third place. “It will be another R.K. Nagar. The level of trust and confidence the party workers have in me is intact. Cadres across Tamil Nadu want me back to strengthen the party,” he said.
On whether he expected any crucial decision to be taken at the DMK emergency executive committee meeting, Mr. Alagiri said it was being called to condole Karunanidhi’s death. “But for the first time office-bearers of various wings of the party are being invited for such a meeting. This is a new phenomenon. Let us see.”
On behalf of the DMK, its MLA J. Anbazhagan said Mr. Alagiri was not a member of the DMK and hence his comments did not warrant a rebuttal.
