Chennai, April 1 (Inditop.com) Indian Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M.K. Alagiri Thursday furthered fuelled the succession battle against his brother and Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin by declaring that he was ready to contest elections for the DMK president’s post.
Speaking to reporters here before leaving for his hometown Madurai, Alagiri said: ‘If elections for the post of party president is held in a democratic manner, I will contest.’
The statement came after DMK chief and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi told a Tamil magazine recently that ‘only the party has the authority to choose my successor’.
Karunanidhi has been leading the party for several decades.
Agreeing with his father, Alagiri maintained that holding elections was the proper way to decide who should head the DMK.
‘(But) I have the right to say that I will not consider anybody as my leader other than Karunanidhi,’ he added, in a clear reference to Stalin, his younger brother who had been widely tipped to succeed Karunanidhi.
The 86-year-old Karunanidhi has been stating in recent times that he would retire in June after the World Classical Tamil Conference (WCTC) in Coimbatore.
This has led to shadow boxing on who would be the next leader of the party.
In May last year, a day after Alagiri was sworn in as a cabinet minister, his brother Stalin was elevated as deputy chief minister. He was entrusted with many of the portfolios handled by Karunanidhi.
Alagiri is now the DMK’s organisational secretary with responsibility for eight southern districts.
