CHENNAI : A host of national leaders, including former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and senior Congress leader Gulam Nabi Azad, are visiting Chennai today (August 30) to participate in a meeting organised by the DMK to commemorate the party patriarch M Karunanidhi who passed away on August 7.Party sources said that Nitin Gadkari had confirmed his participation in the event to be held at the YMCA ground at Nandanam here in the evening. Initially, BJP national president Amit Shah had expressed his willingness to attend the event but he backtracked following objections from a section of the local leaders of his party.
Deve Gowda, who had a close relation with Karunanidhi, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, IUML national president KM Kader Mohideen and Trinamool leader Derek O Brien are participating in the event.
Chief Ministers - Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), N Chandrababu Naidu (Andra Pradesh) and V Narayanasamy (Puducherry) - have also been invited to the remembrance meeting, sources said. The meeting will be chaired by DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan. Party president MK Stalin and treasurer Durai Murugan will address the gathering.
US House member pays homage to Karunanidhi
A member of the US House of Representatives from the State of Illinois paid homage to former CM Karunanidhi in the House on Friday last, thereby ensuring Karunanidhi becomes a part of the Congressional record. Democrat Danny K Davis, a member of the Black Caucus and representative of the 7th congressional district of Illinois, said the Tamil American constituents had told him about Karunanidhi’s demise.
Davis said “Karunanidhi was a man from the lowest rung of the social ladder who climbed the highest political mountains, but kept his lifestyle simple and his thoughts and actions fixed on the highest aspirations for all of his people.” He also observed how Karunanidhi had never lost the 13 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, which he contested in his 80-year-long political career.
‘Stalin put to rest alliance rumours’
TNCC president S Thirunavukkarasar on Wednesday said DMK president MK Stalin’s speech at his party’s general council meet had cleared the air on the alliance between DMK and the BJP. Talking to reporters at the airport here, he said, “Stalin’s speech has put a full stop on speculations about a political realignment in the State, he said.”
Dayalu Ammal discharged from hosp
Dayalu Ammal, wife of the late CM M Karunanidhi was discharged from Apollo Hospital on Greams Road on Wednesday. She was admitted for ‘old age ailments’ on Tuesday night. According to hospital sources, the octogenarian was discharged from the hospital around 4.30 pm.