Chennai: Seeing no immediate relief from family pulls and pressures, DMK president Karunanidhi has once again forced his prince-in-waiting Stalin show the patience of Hamlet.
Assertion at Anna Arivalayam on Tuesday, “My health may have deteriorated, but my grit to run the party has not,” was yet another attempt to pacify estranged son Alagiri and MP-daughter Kanimozhi who were discomfited by Stalin’s sidekicks making never-like-before noise for their thalapathi’s anointment.
Karunanidhi makes the pun close on the heels of party Rajya Sabha MP K.P. Ramalingam, a close confidante of Alagiri, who had camped here for a fortnight before flying back to Madurai a few days back, meeting him at Gopalapuram last week.
Tuesday’s was the second statement the nonagenarian had to make in recent days to procrastinate the promotion plans of Stalin, who realised pressure and reluctantly issued a rejoinder to his supporters’ Facebook campaign pressing for his coronation.
Not so long ago, Karunanidhi tried to tell the party rank and file as to who the real boss of Anna Arivalayam was. While seeking a report of an assessment from the DMK district secretaries and candidates on the Lok Sabha poll debacle, he told them to report only to him in person, thus making it obvious he was unhappy with Stalin’s failed electioneering.
But, what the five-time Chief Minister did not realise was that the functionaries, who were well aware of the reality, went straight to Stalin’s residence after their ‘official’ briefing for the dad. As if that was not enough, rumour mills were abuzz since Thursday morning that the DMK chief had given oral instructions to party organ Murasoli to refrain from overplaying Stalin’s events in its pages.
Karunanidhi was super quick to silence critics by issuing a statement in the evening accusing the media of witch-hunting his party and family for selfish reasons. Incidentally, just when the dust began to settle, Stalin did something else to disquiet both his father and stepsister.
When a functionary at a party meeting in Namakkal on Wednesday attributed the party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle to 2G fame A. Raja’s candidature in Nilgiris Lok Sabh seat, Stalin reportedly rebuked him saying, “Were we correct in approaching the Congress for Kanimozhi’s Rajya Sabha renomination?”
