DMK cabinet seats stay empty

Coimbatore, July 24: The DMK has decided not to fill its two vacancies in the Union cabinet, a move being seen as M. Karunanidhi’s expression of displeasure at the Congress for its failure to help his daughter Kanimozhi get bail.

Karunanidhi told the media that the vacancies, caused by the resignations of A. Raja and Dayanidhi Maran, would not be filled as the DMK was unhappy at the attacks on it by local Congress leaders. 

“We, however, continue to be part of the Congress-led alliance at the Centre,” he said.

This means the two-day DMK general council meeting, which ended today, had opted for status quo on all fronts: DMK-Congress ties, the cabinet vacancies for which the council was expected to name replacements, and the succession issue that it left unresolved.

According to a party official, Karunanidhi told the meeting the DMK would remain with the Congress in spite of the pinpricks as long as the Congress wanted it to.

Asked why the party had not named his successor, Karunanidhi replied that party posts could not be decided to suit media headlines. “We will go only by our party’s timetable on inner-party elections,” he said.

However, the succession issue did reverberate at the meeting with Union minister M.K. Alagiri boycotting the all-important afternoon session, miffed at the open and vocal support for younger brother Stalin.

Karunanidhi, though, played this down by pointing out that his elder son had attended the morning session.

Stalin, who was the cynosure of all eyes, chose to play the reluctant and magnanimous heir apparent. “If any of my supporters sought my elevation in their over-enthusiasm, please ignore them. I do not require posts or power to fight for our party’s causes,” he declared amid cheers.

There was widespread resentment that two resolutions were devoted to the 2G scam, one of which openly accused the CBI of “ulterior motive in implicating Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV and keeping them in jail”.

A former minister said: “The obsession with Kanimozhi and his apprehensions about Alagiri are clouding Karunanidhi’s decision-making capacity.”