Alagiri may quit Cabinet to focus on TN politics

CHENNAI: Speculation is rife that Union chemicals and fertilisers minister M K Alagiri, elder son of Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK supremo M Karunandhi, will resign from the Union Cabinet to play an active role in state politics.

However, top echelons in DMK have dismissed it as “baseless rumours”. The buzz has been doing the rounds ever since the latest issue of Tamil weekly Nakkheran carried a news stating that Mr Alagiri will quit at the end of the current monsoon session of Parliament to play a greater role in the state politics.

Mr Alagiri’s latest move is to be viewed in the context of the impending assembly elections next year. With his father Mr Karunanidhi brushing aside questions of his retirement from politics after the just-concluded world Tamil conference in Coimbatore, it is apparent that the son too wants to see that his father returns to power after the polls.

Even since the octogenarian father had announced the appointment of his younger son M K Stalin as the deputy CM of Tamil Nadu in May 2009, there have been whispers in the political corridors that Alagiri, the DMK strongman from the southern district of Madurai, has been upset and displeased over the development.

While time and again his comments have ruffled the party feathers, his open declaration that he would not accept anyone except Kalaignar Karunanidhi as his leader clearly reflected his dismay over the role his younger brother Stalin was assigned.

After being elevated as the deputy chief minister, Mr Stalin is clearly the person steering the state politics. The leadership issue continues to be like a see-saw with news about Mr Alagiri surfacing now and then.