M K Alagiri’s fate with the DMK remains undecided since the high-level meeting held on Monday did not discuss the former party strongman’s re-induction into the party, as per reports. This comes amid several rumours about Alagiri’s impending political moves.
According to a report in The New Indian Express, Monday’s meeting did not have Alagiri as a topic of discussion and instead held extensive discussions about flagging off the election campaign for the upcoming assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. Stalin’s son and the head of DMK’s Youth Wing, Udhayanidhi Stalin was chosen to kickstart the election campaign in the state.
The meeting turned out to be a damp squib for Alagiri’s supporters since they had hoped that he would be taken into the party again and offered a post. Rumours have been rife in recent times about Alagiri’s political future. One the one hand, it was said that he will be joining the BJP as Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah visited Tamil Nadu on Saturday and on the other hand, there were reports that said that Alagiri might float a new political outfit in the name of his father, the late DMK patriarch and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi. While Alagiri refused that he was joining the BJP, he said he is yet to decide on starting a new political party.
Former DMK MP, KP Ramalingam, an Alagiri loyalist, had recently joined BJP ahead of Amit Shah’s visit to Chennai. He was expelled from the DMK for violation of party discipline earlier this year. After joining the BJP, KP Ramalingam said that he will work to bring Alagiri into the BJP. BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief L Murugan also had said that the party is ready to welcome Alagiri into its fold.
MK Alagiri was expelled from the DMK for anti-party activities in 2014 and has been sidelined in DMK’s first family ever since.