Karunanidhi , popularly known as kalaignar is a fallen man these days. Having performed relatively well in the past 5 years as CM and still loved by most in Tamil Nadu, hes in the most unenviable position of having his daughter in Tihar Jailand an insulting defeat in polls. The fall of Karunanidhi family from heights of 2006 beats all Political Drama’s Bollywood or Kollywood can ever come across.
It has all the essence of a good movie Love , Action, Fights , Murder and Suspense. And by having an extended family of three wives, the senior politician didn’t do any favors to himself. With age he became wiser but he also fell prey to his family’s pressure.
Story starts with Alagiri, known as Anjaa Nenjan (Braveheart) by his followers. He is the first son of his second wife Dayalu Ammal. Alagiri is a rebel in Karunanidhi’s family and has always been associated with his gang of Rowdy’s and control of Madurai City. But he had huge popularity among party circles in Madurai, due to his style of getting together with low level party functionaries. And the downfall of DMK can be attributed to this brave heart from Madurai.
He came to the fore with the Murder of Senior DMK leader Tha. krishnan (T. Kiruttinan), over control of some key constituencies in South. Krishnan was a high way minister and was murdered in a cold blooded way during his morning walk. Alagiri was arrested but later released due to lack of evidence. Karunanidhi didnt even visit his close aide Krishnan’s funeral due to his son’s involvement.
After getting out of jail, Alagiri was poised to get a party role as he wanted to have some protection after his father. And there started the power struggle between Stalin (second son – Dayalu Ammal , Karunanidhi) and Alagiri. Stalin on the other hand has been father’s favorite son ever since his involvement in Politics during his college days and close shave with death in jail, during emergency (by Indira Gandhi) in 1984. He has waited in line for 25 years and contested 5 elections before getting a Mayor role in 1996 and later becoming party senior leader and Minister in 2006 . Stalin is known as a shy leader and many seem him not as charismatic as his father.
Meanwhile karunidhi’s Grand Nephews Kalanidhi Maran is a successful Media figure with Sun TV operations and brother Dayanidhi Maran was becoming popular with his policies and activities as Central IT Minister. Dayanidhi also was very close with Stalin and was seen as the key Stalin Man for Delhi, when he will eventually take over State Reins.
Meanwhile Karunidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, who was his third wife Rajathimmal’s daughter, who had stayed away from Politics and concentrated on Poetry, was roped in by Alagiri as his tag team partner. And she was pitted against Dayanidhi Maran.
But the trigger for the entire mess started with Dinakaran (popular Tamil Daily owned by Kalanidhi) releasing one of its surveys. The survey was a based on Who would you prefer after Karunanidhi. Survey was conducted by AC-Nielson and majority -70% of people polled suggested Stalin, then Dayanidhi Maran followed by least favorite Alagiri. This angered Alagiri and his men went on to burn Madurai Dinakaran office and started down fall of Dayanidhi Maran. With pressure Mounting from Alagiri, Karunanidhi pulled down the popular IT minister Dayanidhi from cabinet. And Dayanidhi was also made untouchable in the party.
Alagiri and Kanimozhi supported Raja to fill Dayanidhi’s position and in a bid to take revenge on Dayanidhi, Raja was asked to investigate Dayanidhi’s deals and he started outing many information about Dayanidhi Maran. Meanwhile in the state , Alagiri and Kanimozhi did not have what Maran’s had, their own TV channel. Sun TV is the most popular channel in Tamil Nadu ever since Cable TV Business started, and has reach of 80% television viewers in Tamil Nadu, it also has powerful influence over the people with its content.
With power in the state and Center, Kanimozhi and Alagiri were pivotal in starting Kalaignar TV in 2007. With the sole aim of starting a channel against Sun TV, under hand deals happened and now the whole world knows the 2G Scam. But it is funny to note that most of the initial information about the Scam was released by Dayanidhi and his close circle. And most of the corruption charges against Dayanidhi were brought out by Raja with support of Kani.
Though most Indian politicians deal in crores in bribes and underhand transactions, this family was trapped by its own members. Meanwhile Stalin is still waiting for his chance at helm, sadly for him, his father havent made right decisions in the past few years. But he will still wait.
As an extension of this story we will bring out how Rahul Gandhi played a key role and took revenge for his father’s murder.
