DMK’s Kathir Anand seeks Athi Varadhar’s blessings 

Ironically, the DMK candidate has clarified after the ‘darshan’ that the party was not veering off its established (rationalist) course towards spiritual politics.

Only a week ago, his father Duraimurugan gave a shocker to party district secretaries engaged in Vellore poll duty that Sri Sri Anandha Siddhar in Vellore would ensure that his son sails through. The DMK Treasurer was learnt to have given the ‘rational’ explanation to district secretaries who had approached him for poll funds.

Athi Varadhar, in fact, was only the third deity Duraimurugan’s had visited in the run up to the Parliamentary polls. Accompanied by his wife and son, Duraimurugan had visited a temple in Vijayawada before calling on then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Chandrababu Naidu before the April 18 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

However, no DMK temple visit in the recent times attracted public attention like the Athi Varadhar pilgrimage. The party was in news vis a vis Athi Varadhar recently after party president MK Stalin’s wife Durga and Kanimozhi’s mother Rajathi Ammal had worshipped the vaishanavite deity in Kancheepuram. As if the party first family’s visits were not enough, recommendation letters from DMK MPs, advising the district administration to issue VIP darshan passes to their family members was giving enough fodder to the Twitterati to jab at what was once an atheist party.