Former Minister and incumbent DMK MLA from Alangulam Poongothai Aladi Aruna was admitted to a private hospital in Tirunelveli in an “unconscious state” on Thursday morning.
In a health bulletin issued in the afternoon, Shifa Hospitals medical director Mohamed Arafath said Dr. Poongothai, who was admitted in unconscious state, “remains awake, responsive and her vital parameters are satisfactory”. She is in the intensive care unit as her current clinical conditions warrants to stay there and being continuously monitored by a team of doctors, the bulletin said.
Sources in the DMK said Dr. Poongothai, who was not enjoying good rapport with the party’s office-bearers in her constituency, was upset that a family member is also trying to get the party ticket to contest in 2021 from Alangulam constituency from where she was elected in 2006 and 2016.
“When the family member applied for the ticket in 2016 and appeared for the interview conducted by ‘ thalaivar ’ (M. Karunanidhi), Dr. Poongothai broke-down in front of him. She was upset that a similar situation was likely to repeat,” claimed a DMK office-bearer in Tirunelveli.
According to him, the widening gap between her and some of the party office-bearers came to the fore when the DMK meeting was conducted at Kadayam on Wednesday night. “Besides not giving her a seat on the dais, the questions she had to face from a few there gave her embarrassing moments and she left the spot immediately,” the DMK leader said.
As Dr. Poongothai was found to be unconscious in her house at Alangulam on Thursday morning, she was rushed to the private hospital.
Meanwhile, a group of DMK office-bearers including Tirunelveli MLA A.L.S. Lakshmanan, Tirunelveli city district secretary Abdul Wahab, former Speaker R. Avudaiyappan and former Radhapuram MLA M. Appavu and others visited the hospital. Since she is in the intensive care unit, they met the doctors to get information about her condition.
Sources in the hospital said she would be discharged “shortly” as she is responding to the treatment.
