Reports of rift with Stalin a bundle of lies: Karunanidhi

Chennai, Jan 13: Dismissing as a "bundle of lies" media reports about a rift between him and his son and party Treasurer M K Stalin, DMK Chief M Karunanidhi on Monday said such efforts aimed at writing off the party would not succeed.

"This party has been nurtured by sacrifices and if sections of media feel that such an organisation can be written off by such bundle of lies, I can only say that they are day dreaming," 90-year old Karunanidhi said at a public meeting here, his first after being unanimously re-elected President for the 11th time at the party's general council meeting on January 9.

His remarks came against the backdrop of some media reports that Stalin was upset with the DMK chief as he was "denied" an opportunity to contest for the post of General Secretary in the party organisational polls. This was later dismissed as malicious by Stalin himself and he was re-elected as party Treasurer.

"We will not fight if lies were disseminated that we fought. We are adept in making others do that," he said. "Whoever engages in efforts to drive a wedge between us by spreading canards and lies, let me say that we will be smarter than you," he said, adding "we can tell more lies and divert the issue, it is, however, something that was learnt and forgotten."

"Even if such efforts by media outlets were aimed at creating rift with Anbazhagan, his long time associate and party general secretary, it will not succeed, he asserted.

Karuna: We will not fight if lies were disseminated that we fought

He also said whoever made such efforts to ruin the party, "be it Congress or other parties," such efforts would not succeed. "The loss is only for the hand that tries to do it," he said. Hitting out at the ruling AIADMK, he said, "What is happening now is not a rule or a regime at all," he said.

The public meeting was organised to explain the general council deliberation of the DMK on January 9. Earlier, Stalin alleged irregularities in several state government schemes including distribution of laptops and procurement of eggs for noon meal programme and said protest rallies and demonstrations will be held across the state to highlight these.

Today's public meeting was the first of many such meetings lined up by DMK to aggressively corner AIADMK ahead of the Assembly elections next year. At the general council deliberations, party leaders, including Karunanidhi and Stalin, had underlined the importance of reaching out to the people more effectively through such meetings.

PTI