Starry blow to DMK, Sarath Kumar joins AIADMK

CHENNAI: While stars of the Hollywood kind continue to favour J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, the DMK on Monday received a setback when actor and Rajya Sabha member Sarath Kumar quit the party. Kumar, who is likely to join the AIADMK, enjoys support of his Nadar community, which is dominant in a couple of southern districts.

In his resignation letter addressed to DMK president M Karunanidhi, the actor said he was being sidelined by a coterie. The actor was upset that the party did not give adequate representation to people of his community (Nadar) in the candidate list. The actor has reportedly requested Karunanidhi that his resignation should not harm the business prospects of his wife Radhika, who produces quite a few sops for Sun TV.

“Some people in the party, including Karunanidhi’s family members, have been humiliating me. I complained to Karunanidhi about the coterie sidelining him several times, but the DMK president could not take any action. He (Karunanidhi) is a prisoner of circumstances,” the actor said.

This echoing of the AIADMK camp’s accusation against Karunanidhi’s dynastic politics is seen as an indication of the actor aligning with Jayalalithaa. Kumar, addressed by his fans as ‘supreme star’, contested the 1999 Lok Sabha elections unsuccessfully. In 2001, the DMK gave him a Rajya Sabha seat. Besides his alleged humiliation by the Karunanidhi family, the Nadar community has not been happy with the DMK which failed to restore the reigns of the Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank to the community.