WikiLeaks: Alagiri pugnacious,Stalin thuggish

In a cable sent on July 9,2009,then US Consul General Andrew T Simkin predicted that DMK supremo M Karunanidhis bid to prevent a bitter fight over succession,between his sons M K Alagiri and M K Stalin,may fail.

In a cable sent on July 9,2009,then US Consul General Andrew T Simkin predicted that DMK supremo M Karunanidhis bid to prevent a bitter fight over succession,between his sons M K Alagiri and M K Stalin,may fail.

Azhagiri,who speaks little English and no Hindi,will have difficulty in the New Delhi political scene. He is at heart very much a provincial Tamil Nadu politician,who will no doubt want to contest for power in the state once his father leaves the scene, said the cable. This will put him at odds with Stalin,who compensates for his lack of charisma with a willingness to work hard and to listen to the advice of trusted bureaucrats and senior party leaders. Stalin,anointed by Karunanidhi,is likely to come out on top because he is more acceptable than his pugnacious and rough-hewn brother, it added.

Azhagiris notoriety extends past the usual political theatrics, said Simkin,recalling his alleged involvement in the murder of a senior DMK leader,T Kiruttinan,for which he was arrested by the then Jayalalithaa government in 2003,and the attack on Dinakaran newspaper in 2007. (In the first case,he was acquitted by the trial court,while in the latter,he was not among the accused.)

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In addition to mobilising an army of fully committed party workers,Azhagiri had the DMK pay cash bribes to lure voters on a scale never seen before in Tamil Nadu, said the cable.

Simkin also drew attention to Stalins thuggish reputation in the 1970s,but added that some of the stories could be apocryphal. He matured and shed this image in the late 1980s,however,evolving into a genuinely popular politician,winning elections to the Assembly four times ,and serving as Mayor of Chennai from 1996 to 2002, said the note. The cable added that Kanimozhi was deeply upset at being denied a cabinet position.

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