Alagiri refutes rumours of him joining BJP ahead of Tamil Nadu Assembly polls

The late DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi’s elder son, M.K. Alagiri, has refuted all the allegations of him joining the BJP during Amit Shah’s visit to Chennai.

Alagiri was sacked from the party in 2014 by Karunanidhi after a turf war reached its heights between him and his younger brother M.K. Stalin.

Since then, after a few failed attempts to patch up with the DMK, he stayed away from active politics.

Ahead of the Assembly elections, there were speculations that Alagiri would join the BJP, but he called such rumours “a joke”.

Though Alagiri maintains that he has not decided about meeting his supporters to discuss launching a political party but sources close to him say that he has called for meeting with his supporters to decide about the next course of action and also add that he is contemplating ideas to float a political outfit with his father’s name ahead of elections.

BJP state president L. Murugan when asked about the speculation of Alagiri joining BJP, said: “I didn’t get any information of him joining BJP or I spoke with him. If he wants to come and join our party, we are ready to welcome him.”

Political analysts say that any attempt that Alagiri is making ahead of the elections is purely to embarrass Stalin during the elections but it is highly unlikely that he will join the BJP. They also believe that he no longer has the clout he used to enjoy earlier in southern districts.

In 2018, after the demise of Karunanidhi, as a show of strength, he called the DMK cadre to rally behind for a procession to Karunanidhi’s memorial to prove that he is the real DMK. But he drew a blank as only close to 1,000 cadre who came from southern districts participated in the rally.