Expelled DMK leader and former Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers M.K. Azhagiri has ridiculed his half-brother and DMK’s working president M.K. Stalin stating that ‘one can’t become a successful leader merely by getting the leadership thrust upon him by another’.

Clearly referring to his father and DMK’s nonagenarian president M. Karunanidhi as the one who ‘thrust’ the leadership upon Stalin, Azhagiri made the above-said comment when asked about his reaction to the DMK’s heavy defeat in R.K. Nagar. “DMK would continue to face such humiliating defeats as long as Stalin remains its working president,” Azhagiril told during a television interview for the channel ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai’.

“It is wrong to blame long-time members of the party as betrayers; who the betrayal couldn’t have been indulged in by new-found allies such as the MDMK and others?” Azhagiri asked. “Merely one person (his father) urging Stalin to take over the party’s leadership won’t help things. A leader has to be as active as Karunanidhi was; Stalin doesn’t seem to have such ideas of mingling with people and winning their hearts,” he added.

It may be recalled that senior party leader Durai Murugan had also urged Stalin to take over the party’s leadership from his ailing father. By his above-stated comments, Azhagiri might have triggered an inner-party crisis in the DMK as he also said that Durai Murugan’s son should be reprimanded for blaming own partymen as ‘betrayers’ and holding them responsible for the defeat in R.K. Nagar.