In a sudden twist of events, the Maran brothers met their granduncle and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and the entire family at the latter’s residence on Monday evening - 10 days after Karunanidhi unleashed a virulent attack on the brothers and their media group for trying to discredit the DMK, state Government and his family.

In fact, it was the initiative taken by Karunanidhi’s elder son M K Azhagiri that led to the meeting; a surprising development, as it is known that Azhagiri was one of the main forces behind the Maran brothers’ fall from grace a little over a year ago.

“The main reason for the meeting and the person who initiated all this was MK Azhagiri. (Local Administration Minister) MK Stalin also played a role in arranging the meeting,” Karunanidhi told media at the party headquarters. “Eyes welled and hearts swelled,” remarked the patriarch when asked about the first meeting after the bitter estrangement last year.

Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP K Kanimozhi was the only absentee, as she is away in Delhi to meet the Prime Minister with the all party MPs delegation on the on-going war in Sri Lanka.

It is well-known that Azhagiri and the Marans fell out after publishing a survey in the latter’s media group that showed Azhagiri in a poor light by giving him a meagre two per cent support from the public as a candidate for carrying on Karunanidhi’s political legacy.

In the recent past when Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi took several efforts to patch up with the State’s first family, it was Azhagiri who did not let them meet Karunanidhi, even after making them wait for long for an appearance once. He leaked this incident to ensure that the brothers did not spread any other information through their media companies about a possible rapprochement.

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