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The crucial DMK Executive committee meeting in Chennai today, had an important member of the Karunanidhi clan missing – MK Alagiri. The former Chemicals and Fertilizer minister had been miffed with the sudden decision to pull out of the UPA coalition at the Centre. According to sources, Alagiri left for Madurai by a morning flight.
Alagiri, say sources, felt slighted at not being consulted on the decision to pull out of the government. His annoyance was aggravated at the fact that the decision was fuelled at the insistence of his brother M K Stalin who insisted that nothing short of a pullout from the Centre would appease their Tamil constituents.
The Madurai MP, it may be recalled had not accompanied the other four DMK ministers when submitting resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week and had done so separately. He had also met UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The sibling rivalry within the DMK clan has for long been simmering with it further spurred after the patriarch Karunanidhi recently announced that Staling would be hios political successor. This apparently did not go down well with Alagiri who scoffed at it, saying DMK is not a 'mutt' where a senior pontiff can anoint his successor.
The DMK meet is likely to see the party take a strong stand on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue with the party denouncing the UPA for betraying the Tamil people.
