Troubled times for DMK? Angry Alagiri skips crucial meet

[caption id=“attachment_673617” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  MK Alagiri. Screen grab/ibnlive[/caption] The divide in the DMK following its pullout from the UPA government sharpened today, as M Karunanidhi’s elder son MK Alagiri chose not to attend the DMK meet and left for Madurai instead. On Sunday, former Union minister MK Alagiri had met his father and party chief M Karunanidhi and c onveyed his strong opposition to the “manner” in which the DMK had withdrawn its ministers from the Centre. The Times Now channel said that he had been unhappy with the response he got and decided to skip the crucial meet. Alagiri is reportedly upset with younger brother MK Stalin, Karunanidhi’s political heir, for reportedly pushing their father to withdraw support from the centre. To show his annoyance at not being consulted on the “timing” of the withdrawla, Alagiri had submitted his letter of resignation to the PM separately, refusing to go with the other DMK ministers. Party sources told NDTV this was Alagiri’s method of protesting against the fact that he had not been consulted about the DMK’s decision to quit the UPA government. On Saturday, Karunanidhi had told DMK workers the party would be “finished” in elections if it did not stay united, especially in the wake of “recent developments” — which has been widely seen as a veiled warning to Alagiri. But, Alagiri clearly ignored the warning. Top leaders of the DMK met in Chennai today to castigate the Centre for not taking a strong enough stand against Sri Lanka over its alleged war crimes. The party, at the emergency meeting of its executive, is likely to pass a resolution against the UPA government for its failure to move a tough resolution against the island nation at the just-concluded session of the UN human rights body in Geneva. Soon after the resolution on Sri Lanka was passed, the DMK slammed it as a ‘failed resolution’ as it did not fulfill any of the party demands such as the inclusion of the word ‘genocide’ and the imposition of an international probe into war crimes in Sri Lanka. NDTV reported that the DMK is also likely to pass around 12 to 15 resolutions in the meeting, one of which is likely to be a demand on New Delhi to stop the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Colombo later this year. The party is also likely to ask India to abstain from the meeting if the venue is not changed.