A succession war seems to have erupted in Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) after the death of the patriarch M Karunanidhi last week. In 2015, late party president M Karunanidhi had publicly anointed his younger son M K Stalin as his political heir over the older son MK Alagiri.
However, M K Alagiri, the estranged son of Karunanidhi, on Monday said that true loyalists and cadre of DMK were with him. Alagiri’s statement came a day before the DMK’s urgent high-level executive committee, when, according to sources, Stalin might be named the new party president.
In 2013, Alagiri had questioned Karunanidhi’s decision to name Stalin as his successor, stating that “DMK is not a Mutt, for anybody to nominate”. Alagiri was expelled from the party in 2014 by his father, after a family dispute over the control of the party. A disgruntled Alagiri tried to mobilise his own followers, but later settled in Madurai, away from active politics.
The brothers – Alagiri and Stalin – publically went head-to-head when Alagiri said that he will accept only his father as his leader.
When the party lost in the RK Nagar bypoll in 2017 to fill the Assembly seat which fell vacant after the demise of J Jayallithaa, the late Chief Minister, Alagiri used the moment to target Stalin’s competence as the party president.
Despite his repeated efforts, Alagir has failed to enter the party.