The feud within the Tamil Nadu chief minister’s family seems to have surfaced once again with Union chemicals minister M.K. Alagiri boycotting the Mupperum Vizha, the high-profile annual celebration of the birth anniversaries of the DMK, its founder Annadurai and Periyar at Nagercoil on Monday evening. Party sources said Mr Alagiri, who is also the party’s south zone organising secretary, was miffed at the way he was not given due importance at the event. Deputy chief minister M.K. Stalin’s staunch supporter, tourism minister and Kanyakumari district DMK secretary N. Suresh Rajan, had organised the celebrations.
Mr Stalin was given prominence after his father at the gala event. As party treasurer and No. 3 in the party hierarchy, Mr Stalin showed keen interest in the minutest details of the arrangement. Mr Alagiri, who wants to see that his writ alone runs in the entire south zone, has been sulking ever since the CM and his father M. Karunanidhi announced the programme without consulting him. Only after he had conveyed his displeasure, his name was included in the invitation, sources said. Subsequently, the invitation carried the names of Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and actor Kushboo.
Since Mr Karunanidhi refused to take his elder son’s "anger" seriously and chose to ignore the "protest", a party senior said Mr Alagiri stayed put at Madurai, a four-hour drive from Nagercoil. Mr Alagiri could not be reached for comment. A section of the DMK is worried over the development.