Even as the 92-year-old DMK patriarch Karunanidhi continues to remain out of public view due to his ill health, his son and DMK’s working president M K Stalin said that his father’s health has improved significantly.
“If doctors allow, he will meet party cadre soon,” Stalin told Puthiya Thalaimurai TV.
Amidst the political turmoil in Tamil Nadu, the several political watchers and even MK Stalin has stated that Karunanidhi’s wit and political involvement in the state’s politics has been sorely missed.
On December 15, 2016 Karunanidhi was admitted to Kauvery Hospital in Chennai due to breathing difficulty caused by lung and throat infection. He later underwent a tracheostomy.
This was the second time the veteran leader has been admitted to the hospital in the same month.
On December 1, he was admitted to the hospital for “optimisation of nutrition and hydration”.
At the time of his hospital stay in December, the private hospital had released a photograph of Karunanidhi watching TV along with doctors and medical staff to allay rumours about his health.
Karunanidhi has not been seen in public for since October 25, when the party had announced that he was ill due to a drug-induced allergy, and asked its members to avoid visiting him. The drugs he was allergic to were those he was regularly taking. Since then, Karunanidhi has been largely confined to his Gopalapuram residence in Chennai.
In February, 2017 Stalin said that the nonagenarian was recuperating and was undergoing speech therapy.
DMK appointed Stalin as its working president on January 4, at the party's general council meeting where the party patriarch was not present. It was the first time in nearly 50 years, Karunanidhi did not attend a meeting of his party’s decision-making body.