MADURAI: The ongoing IPL tournament has come as relief for former Union minister M. K. Alagiri, who has been denied any role in DMK’s campaign for the May 16 Assembly elections.
Now confined to his house at TVS Nagar, away from the rough and tumble of politics that he misses, Alagiri, however, keeps track of each and every development related to elections across the state through his wide network of contacts.
But it is another passion — cricket — that keeps him occupied otherwise. After dinner, he watches IPL.Over phone, he would also discuss the finer nuances of the matches with his son Durai Dayanidhi in Chennai.
Both father and son are cricket players. Alagiri’s friends remember him as a talented spinner. Till about 15 years ago, he would often organise league matches with his friends near his house.
“I had played league matches for Cho Ramaswamy’s cricket team and won trophies in 1980s,” said Alagiri, who shared a close bond with Cho and even visited him in hospital recently.His childhood dream was to play for India but had to give it up it up due to eye problems, 65-year-old Alagiri told Deccan Chronicle, in a freewheeling interview.
He turned nostalgic about his association with leaders like C.N. Annadurai and MGR and actors like Sivaji Ganesan and Nagesh. MGR had awarded him a shield and a gold ring for helping DMK former Minister Durai Murugan win in Katpadi constituency with a thumping majority in 1971 Assembly elections, he said, recalling those days when he had stayed in a small hotel at Vellore for a month and conducted door-to-door campaign.
“MGR was very fond of me. We used to talk over phone for a long time. Whenever I visited him I collected 60 mm rolls of his film; he will not let me go without having food with him,” he recalled. A carefree youth, Alagiri learned an important lesson from his father and MGR that only hard work pays.
“In fact, our father paid little attention to our studies. He never advised me if I should become an engineer or doctor during my school days. In fact we rarely met him, but he wanted us to study only in Tamil medium.” He said he learned organisational skills from his father through his active participation in most of the election campaigns since 1967.
He could test his skills in the field independently when he was moved to Madurai in 1989 to manage Murasoli edition. When Vaiko left DMK in 1993, Alagiri toured the entire southern districts to strengthen the party.
“Following my father’s principle, I always maintained democracy in the functioning of party in this region. Unlike today, I always conducted elections to select office- bearers in each district,” said Alagiri adding he even waited in a queue to vote in the party elections.
He is concerned there is no inner-party democracy in DMK now. With only a few days left for election, many of his loyalists have been looking up to him for guidance, but Alagiri has left it to them to decide whom to vote for.
