Will try to get Alagiri, says ex-DMK MP after joining BJP

Suspended DMK member KP Ramalingam, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Chennai on Saturday, has said he’ll try to bring MK Alagiri, brother of DMK chief MK Stalin, into the saffron fold. Recently, Alagiri had hit the headlines over his reported plans to float a new political party ahead of the 2021 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.

“I have close relations with MK Alagiri. I will try to bring him to the BJP,” news agency ANI quoted the former MP, as saying. Ramalingam, who was with AIADMK before being elected to the Lok Sabha on a DMK ticket, was suspended in March on “disciplinary grounds”.

In 2014, he had attracted suspension for expressing his support for Alagiri, a former union minister and elder son of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi. Alagiri was sacked from the DMK in 2014 for alleged anti-party activities.

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Days earlier, it was reported that he is expected to float a political party named after his father, ‘Kalaignar DMK’ or ‘KDMK’ (Karunanidhi was fondly referred to as Kalaignar, which means artist). It was reported Alagiri would announce his new party in Madurai and that he would meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to Chennai on November 21.

Reportedly, Ramalingam has met BJP leader CT Ravi on Saturday and sought time to meet the Union minister today. Speculations were rife that he may join hands with the BJP after forming his own political outfit.