Karuna plays blame game

Karunanidhi

Coimbatore, July 23: DMK chief M. Karunanidhi today sought to spread the blame for his party’s recent election defeat, amid muted criticism that his family’s grip on the organisation and the government was responsible for the debacle.

“Rather than looking for reasons for the defeat, we must accept that all of us are equally to blame for the defeat,” he told the party’s executive committee that met here, a day ahead of the general council.

Both the meetings are stock-taking exercises to analyse the poll debacle that saw the DMK slip to third place in the Assembly.

Karunanidhi chose to side-step the public perception that his party’s dominance in every sphere and the influence wielded by his family over both the apparatus and the government had doomed the DMK.

“I would not like to hurt anyone by pointing fingers at them for this defeat that belied all our expectations. What is more important is that the DMK has been hurt and in the process all of us have been hurt,” he told the 140-member executive.

Karunanidhi, however, tried to raise the morale of his functionaries. “The DMK is a fortress that survived even the Emergency. So this setback will not deter us. We will definitely win the next elections,” he asserted.

Although he skirted a prickly topic, the alliance with the Congress, one of his deputies, former minister Veerapadi Arumugam, accused the ally of tripping the DMK. “Though the CBI is under the Prime Minister, we got no help from them. They made us part with 63 seats even while (Karunanidhi’s wife) Dayalu Ammal and (daughter) Kanimozhi were being interrogated by the CBI,” he told the executive.

Arumugam’s remarks fly in the face of his leader’s attempt to put the blame on everyone as his observation was an indirect admission that the party’s interests were sacrificed to save Karunanidhi’s family.

DMK veterans don’t expect any major shuffle despite whispers for son Stalin’s elevation to a more powerful post, but the mood among cadres is exactly the opposite.

“Only if Stalin is given a stronger post and the freedom to run the party can we rejuvenate the DMK. That is the general view among the majority of the cadres. If our leader defers a decision by giving in to (elder son) Alagiri’s pressure, it will only demoralise the cadres and weaken the party further,” said S. Kumaresan, a real estate agent, outside the meeting venue.

Hundreds of banners of Stalin that dotted Coimbatore city along with that of his father emphasised this impression. In contrast, there were hardly any posters of Alagiri.

“There is a general expectation that Stalin will be made either working president or general secretary as this would provide an impetus to the party and also reduce the load on Karunanidhi,” said an executive committee member.

DMK insiders said Alagiri had a two-hour audience with his father on Saturday afternoon and got an assurance that the status quo in the party hierarchy would not be disturbed.

He is believed to have convinced Karunanidhi to wait for organisational elections next year when the succession issue could be decided.