Karunanidhi hospitalised

(May 16, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) They say you get emotional when you are physically weak. And just days after he made an emotional appeal in the Assembly to all political parties in the State to work together for the cause of people, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was on Friday admitted to a hospital after he reportedly complained of ‘severe neck and back pain’.

Confirming rumours that were doing rounds since morning that the Chief Minister was not well, an official release from Finance Minister K Anabazhagan, who is second-in-command to Karunanidhi both in the government and in the party, has appealed to everyone not to disturb the Chief Minister till he returned from the hospital.

Karunanidhi has been ‘strictly advised’ by the doctors to be under treatment at least for a few days, as a result of which he was admitted to Ramachandra Hospital at Porur, Chennai on Friday.

Meanwhile, Karunanidhi’s admission into hospital has again opened the floodgates for speculation in the political arena. Most of the conjectures revolve around the octogenarian politician’s health and how long can he go on in the political arena.

There is already a huge discussion going on about the next line of leaders in the DMK to step on to the centre stage. Karunanidhi himself seems keen to pass the baton.

As if to confirm his thinking, On 5 May, Local Administration Minister and Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin concluded the reply to the demands for grants for the Industries and Information Technology departments in the Assembly.

These are departments that are under the Chief Minister and normally, he would have presented the demand for grants and replied to the debate.

But Karunanidhi leaving the floor open for Stalin was also in keeping in line with the promise he made in the party’s conference at Tirunelveli late last year to give greater responsibilities to youngsters in the party (Stalin despite being in his 50s is still the youth wing chief of the party).

Even before the buzz created by Stalin stepping in for Karunanidhi on the floor of the House could settle, political circles here were abuzz with another rumour that efforts are on to make M K Azhagiri, the elder son of the DMK supremo, as the vice president of the party.

Recently Azhagiri was acquitted in the case relating to the murder of former Minister T Kiruttinan.

He also called on the Chief Minister soon after the verdict and reportedly expressed his desire to take a plunge in active politics. With Stalin, the younger son of Karunanidhi, enjoying a prominent position in the State government, Azhagiri reportedly urged his father to provide him a pivotal role in party affairs.

It is rumoured that at the forthcoming general council meeting of the DMK, a few changes would be made in the bylaw of the party to accommodate Azhagiri as the vice president of the DMK.

It is also expected that Karunanidhi would make some ‘important changes’ in the DMK and in the government immediately after he returns from the hospital.
- Sri Lanka Guardian