For his 63rd birthday, MK Alagiri, recently suspended from his party by his father, received a 63-kg cake, a crowd of adoring supporters, and posters that declared "With you lifetime" and "Don't worry."

Those billboard missives in Madurai, the nerve-centre of Mr Alagiri's stronghold, are meant to remind the party that he remains a powerful leader despite his estrangement from DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
alagiri-birthday-poster-360.jpg"My birthday wish is that my father's tears should fall on my dead body," Mr Alagiri said on the eve of his birthday, dramatically declaring his loyalty to Mr Karunanidhi.

It is his determined campaign to unseat his younger brother, M K Stalin, as his father's political successor that led to Mr Alagiri being suspended last week for indiscipline. "He said Stalin would die in the next three-four months. How can a father tolerate this?" Mr Karunanidhi asked reporters recently.

Mr Alagiri has denied predicting his brother's imminent death. Mr Stalin said yesterday, "Everyone must die someday."

In the last 24 hours, both brothers have publicly appealed to their supporters to remain restful.

The DMK, wired with the struggle for control between the brothers and their camps, is heading for the national election as an atrophied party.

In 2011, it was voted out of power in the state election. Two years later, it quit the Prime Minister's coalition government, accusing it of not holding the Sri Lankan government accountable for alleged atrocities against the island's ethnic Tamils. The exit from the Union government was meant to help drive a connect with voters in Tamil Nadu.


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