Madurai: A day after DMK chief M Karunanidhi expressed the hope that the party’s July 4 ‘jail bharo’ protest would help unify various factions in the party, DMK south zone organising secretary and Union Minister M K Alagiri kept away from the party’s urban unit consultative meet held here on Wednesday.
Though the function was organised in the Dhaya marriage hall located adjacent to his residence, the Union Minister, who was present in the city, failed to turn up. Wednesday’s consultative meet was held to plan for the July 4 protest against the arrest of the party’s leaders by the government.
Interestingly, even when party functionaries contacted Alagiri as the meet was under way, he reportedly told his loyalists to continue with the meeting and advised them to discuss only matters pertaining to the jail bharo protest. Further, it turned out that the programme schedule for the meeting, released in every district by the party high command, did not carry Alagiri’s name.
However, sources close to Alaigiri claimed that he kept away from the meeting owing to the upcoming Presidential election. As the party’s Madurai urban district secretary K Thalapathi was arrested in connection with a land grab case, the meeting was headed by deputy secretary Udaya Kumar.
Meanwhile, while the flyers printed for the jail bharo protest announced that the agitation would be led by Alagiri himself, party functionaries who attended Wednesday’s meeting said he might not take part in the protest owing to the Presidential polls. “Even if our leader does not participate, we will be organising the protest under his guidance,” the functionaries asserted.
Stalin meeting
In a another development, the DMK youth wing, which was dominated by supporters of party treasurer M K Stalin, organised a similar meeting on Tuesday night. It was headed by Madurai youth wing organiser and Stalin loyalist Jayaraman.
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