CM’s autobiography release event to sow seeds for unity of anti-BJP parties

The February 28 event to release Part-1 of DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin’s autobiography (political journey) on his birthday eve, and the visit of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for the function will be a politically significant one as it will sow the seeds for bringing together the anti-BJP parties under one umbrella.

The ruling DMK has already reached out to several top National leaders and his counterparts in Kerala, Telangana and West Bengal and extended an invitation for the event, which political observers see it as a move to forge a front of regional parties against the BJP. DMK Parliamentary Party Leader TR Baalu personally handed over the invite toCongress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi last week and she has decided to depute Rahul Gandhi, who will release the first part of Stalin’s autobiography “Ungalil Oruvan” (One among you).

Sources said that the event is an attempt to bring together leaders of non-BJP political parties in the country. The function, to be held at the Chennai Trade Centre on Monday, will be attended by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, besides several top national leaders from the CPI, CPM and other parties. While inaugurating the 45th book fair recently, Stalin announced that the autobiography would cover the first 23 years of his life up to 1976. “The book will cover school and college days, entry into politics, first meeting and my public speech, marriage and the days of emergency. This will be come up for sale in the book fair,” he said.

During his trip, Gandhi would also interact with the newly-elected Congress members of civic bodies.

Tamil Nadu Congress committee (TNCC) president K S Alagiri interaction with media was overshadowed by internal bickering after two functionaries of the party’s trade union wing INTUC allegedly roughed up each other at the state party headquarters in the presence of Alagiri. 

It all began after a former INTUC functionary questioned the presence of the incumbent functionary on the dais. Disagreement between the two functionaries and their supporters allegedly turned physical with one section trying to forcibly evict the other from the auditorium. 

The brief skirmish ended after other Congress workers intervened and dispersed the quarrelling party colleagues. Alagiri dismissed the incident with his usual smile and told media persons that said the state Congress would soon become the ruling party in Tamil Nadu. The TNCC chief, who had met CM Stalin exuded confidence that the Congress party would definitely become the ruling party in the state. The incident happened a day after party in charge of civic elections Ramesh Chennithala led a meeting of the party’s civic councillors at Satyamurthy Bhavan.