Karunanidhi snub: Alagiri mulls new party

Madurai: Posters announcing formation of a new party by former Union minister M K Alagiri found in some parts of the city on Sunday caused a flutter despite the suspended leader's assertion that he would never leave DMK.

The wall posters put up by Alagiri's suspected supporters among other places in Jeeva Nagar near his house declared that "Kalaingar DMK is ready" and described the sulking leader as the General Secretary.

"Our party...Our flag...is ready let us face the Lok Sabha election," read the posters, which surfaced a day ahead of Alagiri's proposed meeting with his followers.

The suspension of Alagiri, elder son of DMK President M Karunanidhi and DMK South Zone Organising Secretary, was the culmination of events starting with posters allegedly put up by his supporters in January causing embarrassment to the leadership and widening the rift in the party.

Alagiri, sulking after being denied a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls, had last week met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP chief Rajnath Singh and superstar Rajnikanth,

triggering speculation about his future plans.

The sitting Madurai MP, considered a party strongman in the southern districts, however, vehemently denied on Saturday any move to float a party and said he would not leave DMK even if he was expelled.

It was against this background that the posters announcing party flag and name had been found in some parts of the city.

They carried the pictures of Alagiri, his son Dayanithi Alagiri, former Deputy Mayor P M Mannan, among others.

A senior DMK leader, however, said the posters were an attempt by Alagiri's alleged supporters to instigate him to launch a new outift.