Karunanidhi responded intemperately: "Let’s then hang them both. The problem will be solved." He also talked about how such killings had a history in the DMK dating back to Annadurai’s time, unwittingly admitting that the murder owed to problems within the party.
The DMK under Karunanidhi, has never been shy of son-preference. Only, it has been different sons at different times. When MGR and Karunanidhi were part of the undivided DMK, the latter used to promote M.K Muthu, the son born of his first wife Padmavati. Muthu, who would dress up like MGR at party meetings, was promoted by Karunanidhi into filmdom in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Papa even scripted some Muthu films like Pillai O’ Pillai (Son O’ Son!). But Muthu failed as an actor, fell out with his father, turned alcoholic, and even crossed over to the AIADMK since he idolised MGR.
After Padmavati’s death, Karunanidhi married Dayaluammal who bore him Stalin and Azhagiri (other than a daughter, Selvi, who married Murasoli Maran’s brother Selvam). Later, Rajathiammal entered Karunanidhi’s life as a ‘partner’, whom the DMK chief preferred to referto as ‘my daughter Kanimozhi’s mother’. Ideally, Karunanidhi would have perhaps liked Kanimozhi to enter politics, but she has preferred to be known as a literary figure. Another son, Tamizharasu, also born of Dayaluammal, never turned proactive in politics.
Stalin, the apple of Karunanidhi’s eye, has been active in party affairs since his arrest under MISA during Emergency. He formed the DMK’s youth wing in 1980 and continues to remain its president despite his 50 years and recent grandpa status. In 1996 when Stalin was elected Chennai mayor, it became almost official that the leadership – meaning Karunanidhi – was grooming him to take over the reins. The camp of Murasoli Maran, Karunanidhi’s nephew, was also satisfied with this arrangement.The only hitch: Azhagiri.
In the eighties, Karunanidhi geographically divided control of the party between his two politically active sons. Azhagiri was despatched to Madurai, the HQ of southern TN, where he carved out a fiefdom through a politics of intimidation and kangaroo courts. Azhagiri has always been clear about one thing: that he would be king-maker rather than king, and that his supremacy in his ‘area’ be acknowledged by everyone.