DMK cadres may not get Rs 10 from M Karunanidhi this Pongal

CHENNAI: DMK workers, especially those living in Chennai, will miss not only DMK chief M Karunanidhi's customery wishes this Pongal but also `10, which he used to give them when they called on him at his Gopalapuram residence in Chennai.
For more than 50 years, it has been the practice for Karunanidhi to distribute brand new `10 notes to party workers on Pongal day . But as he is now unwell, the DMK patriarch is unlikely to keep on the tradition this Pongal.
Party workers said the only other occasion when Karunanidhi veered from the practice was in 2004 as his sister's son Murasoli Maran had died in November 2003.Many party leaders and MLAs treasured the `10 note Karunanidhi gave them as a souvenir. However, if Karunanidhi is unable to carry on the practice, DMK working president M K Stalin may continue the tradition. “For the past four decades I was given `10 fresh notes from Thalaivar. Getting that note is my main part of the Pongal festival. He always used to give the note with a smile. Only in 2004 he did not give out the note during Pongal as he was in mourning for Maran,“ DMK Rajya Sabha MP T K S Elangovan told TOI.