New Delhi: While Union Minister and DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran boycotted the special function to mark the completion of 50 years of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi in the State Assembly on Friday, Delhi was abuzz with speculation that he may lose his Cabinet post for the controversy that his newspaper created.
Maran did receive Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the airport, but did not accompany him to the meeting venue. Some other reports, however, said Karunanidhi didn't invite Maran to the function because he was angry with him.
Sun TV, which is owned by Dayanidhi’s elder brother Kalanidhi Maran, was not given the rights to telecast the rally live while rival channel RAJ TV was given the rights. Sun TV was already distancing itself from the ruling DMK.
Azhagiri and other family members were present at the rally. All present and former MPs and MLAs from the DMK also attended the function. The Opposition, led by the AIADMK, however boycotted the function.
The ties between the DMK chief and Maran and Kalanidhi soured this week after a series of surveys by Tamil daily Dinakaran — owned by the Maran family — gave a popular rating to Karunanidhi's younger son MK Stalin as the political successor to his father, which angered MK Azhagiri and his Madurai-based elder brother.
The surveys, which brought the widening rift between the Marans and Karunanidhis to the fore, so enraged the supporters of Azhagiri that they resorted to violence in Madurai, leading to the death of three persons.
According to reports, the paper published the survey despite Karunanidhi's strong disapproval, and it triggered sharp differences among members of the DMK's first family.
According to the Mumbai-based DNA newspaper, the DMK patriarch has now asked Dayanidhi to submit his resignation as Cabinet minister to the Prime Minister, when the latter called on him at his house recently. Neither the DMK nor Maran denied the report.
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