Karunanidhi to wear crown of thorns; no leadership change

Chennai, Jul 25: With the DMK Chief and patriarch M Karunanidhi a troubled man due to the visible cold vibes within the party, primarily among his two sons Alagiri and Stalin, Karuna has decided to continue his leadership role within the party. The party has also decided to remain with the UPA in spite of the various differences during its recently concluded General Council meeting.

The resolution was passed that stated, "The Dravidian movement continues to be led by Karunanidhi," indicating that Karunanidhi will have to carry on wearing the crown of thorns for a while longer. This has put the succession battle between MK Stalin and MK Alagiri to rest for the moment.

The meeting also indicated that there was not going to be any replacements for A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran, both of whom were indicted in the 2G spectrum scam. Karunanidhi has been quoted as saying, "We will not take the two cabinet berths and status quo will continue. Our alliance with the Congress will continue.We had not sought replacements. As far as the DMK is concerned, those two berths will remain vacant and we will not make efforts to fill them."

With the General Council meeting not expecting any major decisions, the fact of that of dissent among the Stalin and Alagiri factions was more and more evident. Stalin's supporters even pressed for naming Thalapathy (commander) as Stalin is referred to, as the next successor. Alagiri did not attend the second day of the meet with Karunanidhi rubbishing news of a boycott by the only Union minister. On this, Karunanidhi commented, "If he had to boycott, what was the need for him to attend it at all in the first place."

One another key decision made during the meet included the setting up of a committee to look into reorganising the party. With the party and more particularly the DMK first family embroiled in the spectrum scam, the future of the party and its alliances seem to have been pushed to the sidelines.

Slamming reports of a succession battle within the party, Karunanidhi said that they were "mischief" created by the media ahead of every Council meet. He added that he cannot change the leadership according to the "whims and fancies" of the media and that there was a proper method in place for the DMK to elect its leaders and office bearers as perceived by the party founder C N Annadurai.

OneIndia News