Alagiri Hits Out at Stalin, Blames him for DMK's defeat in RK Nagar bypoll

Chennai: Three days after the DMK lost its deposit in the RK Nagar bypoll, M Karunanidhi's son MK Alagiri blamed MK Stalin for the defeat.

Speaking to a regional channel, Alagiri said: "Whenever a party loses in an election, it says democracy has lost. DMK leaders blame that cash has influenced voters of RK Nagar. This is an insult for the DMK cadre who played an important role in building the party.”

“As long as MK Stalin is the working president of the DMK, the party will not win a single election," he added.

Alagiri also said that the party should have put in field work during the elections. He recalled how Karunanidhi used to work hard and interact with people and not stand on a van or on a stage and ask for votes.

While he refused to speak about longstanding rivalry between him and his brother Stalin, the current chief of the DMK, he referred to a tweet by his son Dhaya Alagiri which indirectly hints at it. Betrayal never wins, Dhaya had tweeted.

K Anbalagan, general secretary of the DMK, lashed out at Alagiri for his remarks. "Alagiri has no right and no place to comment on Stalin as he is not a part of the DMK. He was the one who was about to attack our 'Thalalpathy'. He is making these statements out of jealousy,” he said.

“Every vote we got from RK Nagar is genuine and we did not bribe anyone to get votes. It is also common to lose deposit during elections. If he (Alagiri) is going to talk politics with that, nobody can do politics," Anbalagan added.

RK Radhakrishnan, Associate Editor, Frontline said: " Alagiri should have waited till the conclusion of the December 29 review meeting before making his half-baked ideas public. If the issues were not raised, it makes sense to take it to a public forum.”

“Alagiri's comments at this juncture, when the DMK struggles to make sense of its debilitating defeat in RK Nagar, can only harm the party. I believe that it is his deep seated animosity with Stalin that made him burst out publicly in this manner, and it has nothing much to do with the manner in which Stalin is running the party," he added.

The two brothers have been at loggerheads since Karunanidhi named Stalin as his successor. Since then, Alagiri has never missed a chance to make clear his opposition to his brother.