DMK divided over party hierarchy?

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Ahead of the crucial general council meet of the DMK on February 3, trouble seems to have erupted within the first family of the party over the division of responsibilities and positions within the party hierarchy.

According to DMK sources, while M.K. Stalin insists on being made the working president of the party — for which the constitution of the party needs to be amended — his elder brother, Union chemicals and fertiliser minister M.K. Alagiri — is opposed to any change in the existing arrangement.

Sources also said that the proposal to dispense with the existing revenue districts and taluk-wise party functionaries and introduce the constituency-wise office-bearers system has not gone down well with Alagiri, who feels it to be a move to cut him down to size. That move, in any case, did not win the approval of the party chief.

Sources also added that the Madurai strongman has threatened to resign from all party positions as also from the Union Cabinet if the wish of his younger brother is entertained.

Currently, he is the DMK’s organising secretary for the south of the state and holds the chemicals and fertiliser portfolio in the Union Cabinet. But strangely he has been lying low ever since the rout of the party in the last Assembly polls.

M.K. Stalin, on the other hand, is actively positioning himself to take over the reins of the party, sources said.

The demand for making Stalin a working president was even raised in the last general council meet at Coimbatore but was shot down by Karunanidhi. Alagiri, then too, had opposed the proposal tooth and nail.

Added to this is the demand for giving a prominent position to Rajya Sabha MP and DMK supremo’s daughter Kanimozhi by a section within the party, sources said. The forth-coming general council meet happens to be the first one since the release of Ms Kanimozhi on bail in the 2G case.

And one man who remains conspicuous by not shooting himself to the limelight is the grandnephew of the DMK chief, Dayanidhi Maran, who it is believed is keeping his cards very close to his chest.