M Karunanidhi undergoes tracheostomy, DMK chief stable: Rahul Gandhi to visit

Chennai: DMK president M Karunanidhi on Friday underwent tracheostomy at a private hospital in Chennai to optimise breathing and his condition was stable. The 92-year-old leader, who was readmitted to Kauvery Hospital in Chennai late on Thursday night with breathing difficulties due to throat and lung infection, has undergone tracheostomy to optimise breathing, Dr S Aravindan, Executive Director, Kauvery Hospital, said in a statement.

“Karunanidhi is stable,” he said, adding that the former chief minister is being treated with antibiotics and being monitored by a team of doctors. Meanwhile, senior DMK leaders kept thronging the hospital to enquire about the health of the party supremo.

Karunanidhi’s readmission to the hospital comes about a week after he was discharged from there on 7 December, following week-long treatment for drug-induced allergy. On 25 October, DMK had announced that Karunanidhi was suffering from allergy “caused by a medicine he has been using” and advised rest by doctors.

Meanwhile, ANI reported that Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is travelling to Chennai on Saturday to meet the DMK chief. Rahul was recently in Chennai to attend the funeral of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

Rahul Gandhi to visit Chennai today to meet DMK's M Karunanidhi who was readmitted with breathing difficulty due to throat, lung infection

— ANI (@ANI) December 17, 2016

The leader, who has of late not been seen regularly in public, has confined himself to his home, although he has been issuing statements and reacting on key matters such as demonetisation. He had also skipped campaigning during the by-election to three state Assembly seats last month. Ruling AIADMK won all three constituencies.

Kalaignar Seithigal, a pro-DMK Tamil news channel, reported that Karunanidhi was doing well and added that the leader even briefly watched popular 1995 Rajinikanth film “Baashha” on his laptop.

Meanwhile, leaders of political parties, including Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief Su Thirunavukkarasar, former TNCC chief E V K S Elangovan, CPI senior leader Tha Pandian, PMK leader and Dharmapuri Lok Sabha MP Anbumani Ramadoss, and VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan visited Kauvery Hospital and enquired about the health of the DMK patriarch.

Thirumavalavan told reporters that the DMK chief has improved and was now able to sit on a chair.

With inputs from PTI