Waring brothers Stalin-Alagiri unite for Sankarankoil bypoll

Chennai, Feb 21: With the politics within the family proving costly for DMK, the waring brothers and sons of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi have decided they have had enough and have decided to unite in the upcoming Sankarankoil reserve constituency by-election on Mar 18 at Tirunelveli district. DMK south zone organising secretary M.K. Alagiri made an announcement on this front and stated that party treasurer M.K. Stalin would address workers’ meeting to kick off the campaign for the same.

Kicking off the campaign in a big way, Alagiri mentioned on the occasion of the 84th birth anniversary of late DMK leader S.S.Tennarasu that the "kazhagam treasurer" will campaign extensively for the by-polls and he will only “supervise” the election work of DMK in the constituency.

Alagiri added that he would participate in the ritual of filing nominations on Feb 27 and Stalin will address the workers’ meeting scheduled to be held on Feb 28. The exact campaign dates will be announced soon, he commented.

Alagiri is expected to play a low-profile in the by-polls and the campaigning in spite of the fact that the party's candidate Jawahar Suryakumar was the family favourite. A DMK member has been quoted as saying that with the change in equations, Tirunelveli district secretary Karuppasamy Pandian who is close to Stalin will now have to work for Suryakumar, who is an Alagiri favourite. The fact remains that in spite of good credentials, Suryakumar, who is a lawyer is not a popular face both within the party and outside.

It can be recollected here that Alagiri held the DMK mantle during the previous by-polls in Madurai Central, Madurai West and Tirumangalam and addressed workers meetings with gusto. A party leader stated, "Though he might be the organising secretary for the southern districts, he does not wield any clout either among the functionaries or cadre in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts under which the Sankarankoil constituency falls as Stalin does.

"With AIADMK in power, Alagiri would only prefer to refrain from his election-related supervising works. Hence, he wishes to put Stalin in the forefront."

OneIndia News