M K Alagiri rally in Chennai flops

Chennai: MK Alagiri on Wednesday led a rally of supporters to pay homage to his father Karunanidhi at his resting place on the Marina. The 'mammoth' show of strength turned out to be a damp squib as the turnout fell far short of the promised one lakh followers. The rally only ended up showing on the TV screens the mercurial mood swings of the Madurai 'challenger' as he angrily pushed his men off him during the procession and snapped at reporters when they flung a couple of hurried questions at its close.

One of those questions was about the DMK leadership suspending 'Indiranagar' Ravi from the party after he turned up for his (Alagiri) airport reception when he arrived from his hometown Madurai on Monday. “There were 1.5 lakh people in my rally today. Will they expel them all (from the DMK)?” Alagiri shot back, thereby making two tall claims that there were 1.5 lakh people in the rally, and, all those at Marina were DMK members flaunting their loyalty to him.

Ending the ‘silent’ rally featuring his supporters in black shirts by offering flowers at his father's resting place, Alagiri said, “We have all come here only to express homage to our leader. There is no other agenda”. He was trying to play down his earlier proclamation, made a few days ago at Madurai, that he would make his all-important announcement on future political plans at the close of the Marina rally. Alagiri's family was with him at his father's memorial. 

DMK observers say the mood in the Alagiri camp has taken a further dip after brother Stalin, now the president of the party, said a firm 'no' to the elder sibling's appeal for readmission into the DMK.      

Having consolidated his grip over the party, including the southern districts that were once Alagiri’s fiefdom, Stalin did not wish to take chances and open up possibilities of inner squabbling resuming.  

“It’s just you, the media, who are excited about Alagiri, his pronouncements and now this rally. We did not feel even a tiny ripple of a pebble dropping”, said a DMK senior. He requested anonymity “because thalapathi (Stalin) has advised us against speaking about Alagiri, who is not a member of our party”.

Chennai witnessed traffic snarls on the rally route touching Triplicane police station, and Chepauk cricket stadium, besides Anna Salai near the Anna statue en route to the burial site at Marina as Alagiri’s followers arrived for the procession in the morning. They came into the city from various parts of the state, mostly Madurai and neighbouring districts, in chartered buses and vans. Otherwise there was not much of an impact on the city from the rally; the few posters hailing Alagiri put up on the walls in some places along the route were lost among the flood of colourful movie announcements.