Alagiri may quit to focus on Tamil Nadu elections

After A Raja’s exit, the next DMK minister who may quit is chemicals and fertilisers minister MK Alagiri. Alagiri intends to quit to “prepare” the party for the assembly polls due in April-May 2011.

After A Raja’s exit, the next DMK minister who may quit is chemicals and fertilisers minister MK Alagiri. Alagiri intends to quit to “prepare” the party for the assembly polls due in April-May 2011.

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As DMK’s joint secretary in charge of six districts, Alagiri’s responsibility is to deliver at least 80 of the 112 assembly constituencies in that region.

If he manages to do so, he can hope for party leadership post in Tamil Nadu. Alagiri’s father and chief minister M Karunanidhi, has already indicated that the post might go to his second son Stalin. Last year, Alagiri sparked a crisis, seeking an open ballot in the party for the post of chief minister.

Alagiri has never hidden his unhappiness at being “banished” from Tamil Nadu to serve in Delhi. “His actual exit may happen in December before the PM’s planned mega reshuffle,” said sources close to Alagiri.

DMK circles expect Karunanidhi to give his consent to Alagiri’s exit after the wedding of the latter’s film producer-son in Madurai on November 18. Alagiri’s son Dayanidhi (26) got engaged to Anusha (24) in March, leaving the date of wedding to be worked out later.

But his decision to hold the event in November was seen as a signal that he might quit after the wedding to plunge into campaign in Tamil Nadu’s southern districts.

For a month now, Alagiri has been away in Madurai to oversee the wedding preparation, which has planned on two scales — an elegant get-together to be graced by political leaders and a biryani lunch for his hundreds of supporters and people.

Alagiri has not been attending Cabinet meetings, Parliament or participating in the day-to-day administration. Official files needing his assent are being flown to Madurai and back.

With the exit of Raja in the 2G spectrum controversy, Alagiri is not sure whether his special invitees, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will turn up for the wedding.