DMK cadre shows up en masse to support Balaji

CHENNAI: The manner in which the ruling DMK party threw its weight behind State Electricity Minister Senthilbalaji is as much sensational as the controversy-ridden arrest itself.

Despite the arrest at 2 am on Wednesday, the biggies of the DMK converged as soon as possible at the Omandurar Hospital where the arrested minister was kept by the ED after he complained of chest pain.

Health Minister Ma Subramanian, after catching a glimpse of the minister’s arrest on TVs, was the first to rush to the hospital. As an anxious Subramanian culled out information of the minister’s condition from the hospital controlled by his department, next to reach was State Sports Minister and DMK Youth Wing Secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin. Shortly thereafter, local district secretary cum state HR&CE Minister PK Sekar Babu arrived with a huge posse of party men. With every passing hour, all senior members of the State cabinet arrived.

Chief Minister Stalin got into a huddle with his party seniors and legal experts to overcome the central agencies’ onslaught against his party. The frustrated lawyers of the DMK also got their papers and arguments ready for fiery exchanges with their ED counterparts in the local court and the HC.

Meanwhile, sessions judge Alli turned up to ascertain Balaji’s health. So organised was the media management of the DMK that by noon, sympathy surrounding Balaji’s arrest, mainly after the doctors confirmed critical blocks in his blood vessels, hit the headlines.

Wary of the anomaly in the ECG report and subsequent cardiologists’ assessment, an eminent cardiologist from Apollo was brought for a second opinion. The government jacked up the sympathy quotient when a team of doctors from the Union government-run ESI Hospital confirmed that the minister needed surgical intervention.