Supporters of former Union Minister and DMK Madurai satrap M K Alagiri have justified boycotting his younger brother M K Stalin’s birthday celebrations in the temple town last month, saying it was “tit for tat” action.
The DMK high command on Wednesday sought an explanation from 15 supporters of Alagiri as to why they had stayed away from the event.
Seemingly undisturbed by the development, one of the functionaries and an Alagiri camp loyalist who is at the receiving end said “Even Stalin’s supporters had abstained from attending our leader Alagiri’s birthday celebrations here.”
“Why did the party high command not serve notices on Stalin’s supporters then,” asked a staunch loyalist of Alagiri.
Interestingly, most of the functionaries who have been pulled up now were served with show cause notices in April last year too for having boycotted a public meeting convened by Stalin to condemn the State Government.
“We had boycotted that meeting because it was held when our leader was out of town,” an Alagiri camp loyalist said.
The latest salvo fired at the Alagiri camp has the blessings of his father and DMK president M Karunanidhi who is apparently cut up with his elder son for meeting Congress leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi after his party decided to pull out of the ruling coalition at the Centre.
The two brothers have been warring on and off and the latest difference of opinion has been triggered by a popular perception that it was Stalin who had pressured Karunanidhi to sever ties with the Congress.