<p>Welcoming Kanimozhi with a huge garland, along with his wives Dayalu Ammal and Rajathi Ammal at the reception lounge of the Chennai airport milling with hundreds of party cadres, Karunanidhi also sent a strong political signal that the entire party was behind his daughter. <br /><br />It was also a tactical move on Karunanidhi’s part to keep intra-party dissent at bay when Kanimozhi returned to her home turf for the first time after her incarceration in the Tihar jail in Delhi since May 20. Sources close to the party told Deccan Herald that the DMK patriarch did not want any factionalism to surface when his daughter was coming home.<br /><br />As the 88-year-old DMK leader took trouble to drive down to the airport, almost the entire Karunanidhi kin, including party’s treasurer M K Stalin, followed suit and put up a show of solidarity in joining the crowd. While several of her party colleagues in Parliament travelled along with her by the same flight to Chennai, M K Azhagiri, the Madurai-based elder son of Karunanidhi, saw Kanimozhi off at New Delhi airport.<br /><br />The DMK patriarch mulling over a significant party position for Kanimozhi in the post-Tihar scenario, as jail life is considered “baptism by fire” in politics, has already caused discomforting ripples both in the Stalin and Azhagiri camps, sources said. Karunanidhi is said to have advised his sons not to do anything that could undermine the party’s unity.<br /><br />Since the jailed former telecom minister A Raja is already holding a key party post as propaganda secretary, sources said Kanimozhi could be considered for an equally important post of principal headquarters secretary of the DMK, after convincing the party seniors. <br /><br />“It may take some time, but Karunanidhi is slowly and politely informing his peer group in the party that a larger political role for Kanimozhi should be encouraged, considering the way she braved jail life in Tihar,” sources said. <br /><br />For now, the theme song in the DMK is unity. This was also indicated by loyalists of both Stalin and Azhagiri applauding Kanimozhi’s return with big advertisements in the party organ “Murasoli,” on Saturday. <br /><br />Some of the other senior DMK leaders, including general secretary K Anbazhagan, Arcot Veerasamy and Ko Si Mani, who due to their ill-health could not make it to the airport, religiously turned up at Karunanidhi’s CIT Colony residence here, to where Kanimozhi drove down straight from the airport with her parents. She was accompanied by her husband Aravindan and son Aditya.<br /><br />Outside their house gate, it was an intense and emotive welcome to Kanimozhi, amid bursting of crackers and performance by Tamil folk artistes. Just before Kanimozhi stepped into her house, women of the household performed “aarathi” with lamps and smeared vermillion on her forehead. <br /><br /> The 43-year-old MP was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in May in connection with alleged payment of Rs 214 crore by the DB Group to DMK-run Kalaignar TV in which she is one of the directors.<br /> </p>
<p>Welcoming Kanimozhi with a huge garland, along with his wives Dayalu Ammal and Rajathi Ammal at the reception lounge of the Chennai airport milling with hundreds of party cadres, Karunanidhi also sent a strong political signal that the entire party was behind his daughter. <br /><br />It was also a tactical move on Karunanidhi’s part to keep intra-party dissent at bay when Kanimozhi returned to her home turf for the first time after her incarceration in the Tihar jail in Delhi since May 20. Sources close to the party told Deccan Herald that the DMK patriarch did not want any factionalism to surface when his daughter was coming home.<br /><br />As the 88-year-old DMK leader took trouble to drive down to the airport, almost the entire Karunanidhi kin, including party’s treasurer M K Stalin, followed suit and put up a show of solidarity in joining the crowd. While several of her party colleagues in Parliament travelled along with her by the same flight to Chennai, M K Azhagiri, the Madurai-based elder son of Karunanidhi, saw Kanimozhi off at New Delhi airport.<br /><br />The DMK patriarch mulling over a significant party position for Kanimozhi in the post-Tihar scenario, as jail life is considered “baptism by fire” in politics, has already caused discomforting ripples both in the Stalin and Azhagiri camps, sources said. Karunanidhi is said to have advised his sons not to do anything that could undermine the party’s unity.<br /><br />Since the jailed former telecom minister A Raja is already holding a key party post as propaganda secretary, sources said Kanimozhi could be considered for an equally important post of principal headquarters secretary of the DMK, after convincing the party seniors. <br /><br />“It may take some time, but Karunanidhi is slowly and politely informing his peer group in the party that a larger political role for Kanimozhi should be encouraged, considering the way she braved jail life in Tihar,” sources said. <br /><br />For now, the theme song in the DMK is unity. This was also indicated by loyalists of both Stalin and Azhagiri applauding Kanimozhi’s return with big advertisements in the party organ “Murasoli,” on Saturday. <br /><br />Some of the other senior DMK leaders, including general secretary K Anbazhagan, Arcot Veerasamy and Ko Si Mani, who due to their ill-health could not make it to the airport, religiously turned up at Karunanidhi’s CIT Colony residence here, to where Kanimozhi drove down straight from the airport with her parents. She was accompanied by her husband Aravindan and son Aditya.<br /><br />Outside their house gate, it was an intense and emotive welcome to Kanimozhi, amid bursting of crackers and performance by Tamil folk artistes. Just before Kanimozhi stepped into her house, women of the household performed “aarathi” with lamps and smeared vermillion on her forehead. <br /><br /> The 43-year-old MP was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in May in connection with alleged payment of Rs 214 crore by the DB Group to DMK-run Kalaignar TV in which she is one of the directors.<br /> </p>
