Tamil Nadu: DMK lines up celebrations as Karunanidhi turns 92 tomorrow

Chennai, Jun 2: DMK chief and five time Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi's 92nd birthday will be celebrated tomorrow as party workers from all parts of the state will converge here to wish the leader amidst a slew of welfare programmes being organised to mark the occasion.

Karunanidhi, like on his previous birthdays, will pay floral tributes at the memorials of DMK founder CN Annadurai and rationalist leader Periyar EV Ramasamy in the morning tomorrow and address a meeting at YMCA grounds here later in the day.

"We are holding

to mark Kalaignar's birthday and it will go on over the next one month and this will include literary gatherings," a senior DMK leader told PTI.

Meanwhile, DMK party wings began celebrations at several places in the state today. For instance, the fisheries wing here distributed 'dhotis' and 'sarees' to the indigent besides uniform and books for poor students.

Free lunches were organised at old-age homes besides a host of other events like literary and music programmes, public meetings by top state functionaries of the party across Tamil Nadu.

The party is set to make use of social networking sites to optimise its reach to the younger generation. It has created hashtags "#Kalaignar92" (also in Tamil) and "#HBDMK" to facilitate sending greetings to Karunanidhi.

Also, greetings can be uploaded at the website of Karunanidhi www.kalaignarkarunanidhi.com besides enabling the facility to send wishes through SMS to 54242.

Tomorrow, Kalaignar TV will begin its telecast of a mega series on the life of Vaishnavite saint philosopher and reformer Sri Ramanuja the script for which is written by Karunanidhi.

The DMK which is wedded to rationalist ideals, however, holds the 11 century saint in high esteem saying he stood for the equality of all castes.

Yesterday, Karunanidhi, in his birthday message had called upon them "to make the party win, to put Tamil Nadu on the development path, rally forward to work in a planned fashion and start with gusto." Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu are scheduled in April-May next year.

PTI