Will Alagiri visit Karunanidhi on his birthday?

Chennai: As the DMK gears up for the 93rd birthday celebrations of party chief M. Karunanidhi,  the talk is on whether the leader’s elder son M.K. Alagiri will pay a visit to get the blessings of his father, at a time when the party seems to have fully gone to the control of his younger brother and treasurer M.K. Stalin.

If Alagiri meets Karunanidhi, the next question would be whether the visit would turn out to be a politically important one or just one of those personal meetings of a son and father.

When Alagiri met Karunanidhi before the Assembly election campaign, Stalin was quick to term it a “personal visit.” The Madurai strongman also stayed away from DMK election campaign even in his former stronghold Madurai and other southern districts. Ever since the DMK lost the Assembly elections, there is speculation whether Alagiri would return to the helm of affairs in South Tamil Nadu, where DMK nearly swept the polls in 2009 Parliament elections despite widespread protests to stop the Sri Lankan military offensive at that time.

The DMK which narrowly lost power this time has lost all but one seat in Madurai, besides losing all seats in Theni. The party also won only a few seats in Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Virudhunagar districts.

Alagiri was expelled from the party just before 2014 Parliament elections for commenting against DMDK leader Vijayakanth. He was kept away from the family during the alliance talks with Vijayakanth in the 2016 Assembly elections. Immediately after the actor refused to join the DMK-Congress front, Karunanidhi permitted Alagiri to meet him. The DMK will be up against a ‘vote for ruling party syndrome’ in the local body elections and it needs to strengthen its organisation in the south.

Stalin has risen to the rank of Leader of Opposition and he will need to focus on Assembly activities too. Besides, Alagiri could be used by Karunanidhi to check Stalin’s clout, if necessary.

The DMK Chennai south district unit will celebrate the birthday for 18 days from June 2. The celebrations include poetic session, music programme, feast, medical camps, tree planting and other welfare schemes.

The programmes and public meetings on Karunanidhi’s birthday will be a fully party affair as no alliance leaders had been invited. But, party functionaries said the alliance leaders had not been ignored and they would pay a personal visit to greet Karunanidhi on June 3.