Amidst reports that his supporters would back NDA candidates in the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, expelled DMK leader and former Union minister M K Alagiri on Friday asserted DMK would end up in the third place.

“If the party high command continues with suspension and dismissal of cadres, how will their family members vote for the DMK?” he asked, referring to action against his loyalists. Alagiri, however, told the partymen to vote according to their conscience for any other party.

Maintaining that his supporters were not after positions or money and were loyal workers, Alagiri said he only sought justice from the party for removing them from the party.

But so far they have not given the reason for removing his supporters, the former DMK South Zone organising Secretary said at a private function of one of his supporters here. “Is it wrong to take up the case of a cadre? They want to bury the DMK party,” he said.

He, however, said as for himself and his supporters, DMK President M Karunanidhi was the leader and DMK was their party.

Alagiri, who has been engaged in a sibling rivalry with his younger brother and DMK Treasurer M K Stalin, criticised the party high command for giving tickets to those who had come from AIADMK.

Apparently referring to speculations over his stand vis-a-vis his support in the polls, in the backdrop of leaders of various political parties calling on him, he said Karti P Chidambaram, son of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, visited the hospital when his son was not well twice.

He had met the Union Finance Minister four times to get funds for Madurai constituency development. “If I speak like this, tomorrow the media will say that I am supporting Congress.”

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