‘I don’t have any plan to launch a party as of now ’

CHENNAI: On a day the DMK executive committee gave green signal to elevate MK Stalin as party president, his elder brother MK Azhagiri brushed aside the talk about him launching a new party. In an interview, he tells

M Manikandan that it was not his father, the late M Karunanidhi, who had removed him from the DMK and asserts that there’s no rift within the family. Edited excerpts Speculation is rife that you are going to launch a party named Kalaignar Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (KDMK), is it true? Who said that? Why should I launch a new party now? Your supporters have put up posters and flex boards with your photos saying that you are going to be the general secretary of the KDMK. What is your stand? Yeah, I saw that in WhatsApp. Actually, it is not a new one.

Some people have kept these flex boards (of KDMK) since two to three years back. However, it is not my stand. I don’t have any plan to launch any party now. In the DMK’s emergency executive meeting held on Tuesday, many senior leaders urged your brother Stalin to lead the party. What do you make of it? That’s their decision and I don’t want to comment on it. DMK MLA J Anbazhagan has said that party president Karunanidhi had expelled you from the party and current office bearers have nothing to do with the decision. So, what is your response to him? I want to make one thing clear. My father did not remove me from the party. It was general secretary K Anbazhagan who made the statement about my expulsion in 2014. Also, as per the by-laws of DMK, it says general secretary has the sole authority in taking

disciplinary action and also for revoking it. Are your family members with you? There is no issue within our family. It is only in the party. What’s your next move?

I had spoken about various issues widely on Monday. I won’t speak anything more for at least a month. So, wait for a month. Time only will decide about my further moves.