M K Alagiri: The troublemaker son in the DMK

Suspended in the “interests of the party”, M K Alagiri, the second son of Dravida Munnetra Kazagham chief Karunanidhi, has repeatedly attracted controversy putting his party in disarray

Former Union Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Muthuvel Karunanidhi Alagiri was on Friday suspended from the party on charges of going against the party's stand and airing divergent views on the issue of stitching an alliance with Vijaykant's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam.

The former Chemicals and Fertilisers minister in the Manmohan Singh government was temporarily removed from all posts including the primary membership of the DMK.

Alagiri is the second son of Dravida Munnetra Kazagham chief Karunanidhi and his second wife Dayalu Ammal.   

Alagiri graduated from the Presidency College in Chennai with a BA degree.

Alagiri has repeatedly attracted controversies and put his party and family in an embarrassing position.   

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The most prominent of them is the differences between him and his younger bother M K Stalin on the issue of who is the political heir apparent to Karunanidhi.

While the 90-year-old DMK chief had hinted that Stalin could well be his successor, Alagiri had challenged that, saying he would not accept anyone other than Karunanidhi as his leader.

Sibling rivalry in the party surfaced yet again recently, with the party high command dissolving a Madurai unit and replacing it with a temporary body dominated by supporters of its Treasurer M K Stalin. 

The action came in the wake of a controversial poster pasted by supporters of Karunanidhi's Madurai-based son Alagiri in that town, making critical remarks in the context of the party's general council held in Chennai.

Amid strains in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s first family over leadership squabbles, party chief Karunanidhi issued a veiled warning to Alagiri, saying those who went against party diktat would be expelled.

"I make it clear that those who make such unnecessary contrasting remarks and thus try to affect party discipline, whoever they are, disciplinary action will be initiated against them and they will be expelled, even from party membership," Karunanidhi had said.

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The succession crisis had came out to a peak when party members loyal to Alagiri attacked the Madurai office of Dinakaran and set it to fire, in which three staff were killed.

In May 2007 May, Dinakaran, the newspaper run by Kalanidhi Maran, the elder brother of Dayanidhi, ran into a controversy when it published the results of a series of opinion polls which showed M K Stalin, the second son of Karunandhi, having more approval (70 per cent) than his elder brother M K Alagiri (2 per cent) as the political heir of Karunanidhi. The Madurai office of Dinakaran was fire bombed by supporters of Alagiri and three employees were killed.

Three employees of Dinakaran, a Tamil daily, lost their lives in the attack on the office on May 9, 2007 following the publication of a survey that gave an edge to former M K Stalin over his brother Alagiri to succeed their father.

The figures had also claimed that Alagiri did not enjoy popularity with the people.

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In another controversy, cases were registered against ten persons, including Union Minister M K Alagiri's son Durai Dayanidhi, charging the companies owned by them with mining sand and granite without permission.

They were charged with various offences under the Indian Penal Code including mining without permission, damage to public property and erasing evidence.

Alagiri was also an accused as the main conspirator in the murder of the former Highways Minister, Pasumpon T Kiruttinan, in May 2003.

Kiruttinan was hacked to death by unidentified men while he was out for a morning walk near his residence in KK Nagar, Madurai.

But in 2013, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a special leave petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging the order of the Chittoor Sessions court acquitting Alagiri and 12 other accused persons in the Kiruttinan murder case.

In 2011, a series of land grab cases were filed against Alagiri's close associates and several of them have been arrested.

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