MADURAI: The underlying antagonism and hostility had always marked their relationship. On January 3, when MK Alagiri, the eldest son of the late M Karunanidhi, confronted his estranged brother and DMK President MK Stalin, the battle lines were drawn once more.
the sibling rivalry Between Alagiri and Stalin, the Karunanidhi children of his second wife, Dayalu Ammal, came to light in 2001. The sentiment within the DMK was that Papa Karunanidhi had always favored his youngest son Stalin when it came to politics, preparing him to take the reins of his party.
In the late 1980s, as the rifts between his sons deepened, Karunanidhi sent Alagiri to Madurai, delimiting the bastions of their children. Alagiri took over ‘Murasoli’, then a powerful party organ that had grown in stature and influence among party members. When Stalin, as then secretary of the youth wing of the DMK, conducted a state conference in Virudhunagar in 2001, Alagiri was accused of asking cadres to stay away from the program. He was suspended from the DMK. The party’s general secretary, K Anbazhagan, issued a diktat asking party members not to share with Alagiri. The seeds had been sown to deepen the gap between the brothers.
In 2001, after his suspension, Alagiri distanced himself from elections to the Madurai Corporation Council. But seven of his supporters fought as independents and won. AIADMK and its allies won 37 seats in the 72-member council and DMK 35. Alagiri supporter D Chinnasamy was elected deputy mayor. After Chinnasamy’s death in 2005, Alagiri supporter Ghouse Basha was elected deputy mayor, unopposed. Alagiri thus established his supremacy in the Madurai region.
Although Alagiri did not hold an official position in the DMK, he continued to influence the party cadre which led to feuds and factionalism. High-level leaders like T Kiruttinnan and former assembly chairman PTR Palanivelrajan strongly opposed it. In May 2003, Kiruttinan was shot and killed and Alagiri was prosecuted as the main suspect. On May 9, 2007, Alagiri supporters set fire to the office of the Dinakaran newspaper, owned by Kalanithi Maran after he cast Stalin as Karunanidhi’s successor in a poll conducted by him. Three newspaper workers were killed in the incident. The DMK distanced itself from Alagiri.
In 2009, Alagiri was asked to lead the party’s electoral machinery for the Thirumangalam election. It was the same year that the 2G scam broke out with the party’s leadership fighting to avoid corruption charges and fighting to save its image. Alagiri was named organizing secretary for the DMK South Zone, his first official position in the party. It was around this time that Stalin was appointed treasurer of DMK, for which Alagiri now claims he was instrumental. He says that he had persuaded his father to appoint Stalin to the post.
After DMK’s victory at Thirumangalam by choice, the head of DMK, Karunanidhi, gave his eldest son Alagiri the ticket to contest Madurai’s Lok Sabha elections. Alagiri became the first deputy of DMK in Madurai and later the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers. In return, his brother was appointed Senior Deputy Minister of Tamil Nadu from 2009 to 2011.
Alagiri was expelled from the DMK on January 24, 2014, six days before his birthday, for his statements that the DMK would lose in the Lok Sabha elections. His father, however, said he was expelling him for saying that Stalin would die in a few months. Then Karunanidhi fell ill, and Alagiri’s attempts to return to the party seemed doomed.
Following the death of his father on August 7, 2018, Stalin took over as party chairman. The conflict between the two brothers seemed to deepen, ensuring that Alagiri remained expelled from the DMK.
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