M. K. Alagiri

Some Lesser Known Facts About M. K. Alagiri

• His father was a great politician and had also served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. His father was a big fan of the Tamil writer, Azhagirisamy, so much so that he named his son, Alagiri after the writer.

• He grew up with three brothers and a sister and was the second son in the family.

• He joined politics at a very young age under the guidance of his father, M. Karunanidhi.

  

• In 2008, he played a key role in the party winning three by-elections. For this, he was appointed as the Organizing Secretary of the party of the southern districts.

• There was a rift between the two brothers on the succession to lead their father’s party. Their supporters often fought with each other.

  

• In the 2009 Parliamentary elections, he won from the Madurai constituency; securing a total of 4,30,688 votes.

• During his tenure as the Cabinet Minister of Chemical and Industries, the opposition raised questions over his attendance in the parliament; as Jena, the State Minister of the ministry answered all the questions raised in the parliament on behalf of Alagiri.

• The relationship crisis between the brothers reached its peak in the Dinakaran incidence. The supporters of Alagiri attacked the Madurai office of the newspaper, Dinakaran, and set it ablaze. This came after the newspaper had published an article; showing Stalin’s prominence more than Alagiri’s.

• In January 2013, Jena accused Alagiri over inaction in the alleged misuse of government subsidies by the fertiliser companies. Jena said that Alagiri didn’t respond to any of the five letters he wrote to him.

• He again fell into a controversy when he did not accompany the contingency led by T.R. Baalu to render the resignations in the Prime Minister’s Office and to hand over the letter of withdrawal to the President on 20 March 2013. It was claimed that he delayed his resignation as a mark of protest against his father’s decision to pull out of central ministry, and also, some sources claimed that he was upset as he was not kept in the loop while making this decision.

• On 24 January 2014, he was removed from the post of Secretary as well as the member of the DMK Party.

• On 7 August 2018, his father, Karunanidhi passed away after a prolonged illness.