Alagiri men’s posters in Madurai puts off party chief

Madurai: The feud in the DMK’s first family seems to have reared its ugly head once again em­b­arrassing the party leadership.

On Thursday, the walls in Madurai city were found splashed with multi-colo­u­red offset posters anno­un­cing that the DMK would hold its general body meeting at Kalaignar Arangam (in Chennai) on January 30, M.K.Alagiri’s birthday.

The posters were issued in the name of three staunch loyalists of Alagiri, the ‘ali­e­nated’ son of the DMK president M. Karunanidhi, un­der the caption, Ini oru vidhi seivom (We will create destiny), borrowed from the poet Bharathi.

A day later, the poster rec­eived a prompt but caustic rebuttal from the party supremo himself. In a letter to cadres, which was carried in the DMK party organ Murosoli and also on Facebook, Karunanidhi called it a ‘poisonous content’ issued with ulterior mo­tive to humiliate the pa­rty and its leadership at the time of the crucial Parli­a­mentary polls.

In a subtle reference to his elder son’s absence at the party’s recently held general body meeting in Chennai, Karunanidhi wh­ile condemning those who pasted the posters in Mad­urai pointed out that they had carried prominently the portrait of Alagiri who had not attended the crucial meeting.

“This phony announcement (about the general body meeting) has pained me and party workers. Tho­se responsible for this dangerous act should openly apologise. Otherwise, they will be permanently remo­ved from the party,” he declared.

Meanwhile the offensive posters continue to stay on Madurai walls. Responding to the warning from the pa­rty chief, the three Alagiri loyalists claimed that they had no intention of maligning the image of the party.

“We are ready to apologise. We will also consult our leaders before taking any decision,” said one of them in response to high command’s strictures.

With Alagiri, the stormy petrel within the party and the first family, seemingly preferring to lie low, the co­ntroversial poster has rev­ived the fears of stoking bouts of embarrassment wi­t­hin DMK as in the past.