CHENNAI: With the DMK facing yet another setback — this time in the local body elections — party chief M Karunanidhi on Friday left for Delhi to meet his daughter Kanimozhi, who is under arrest for her alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation.Kanimozhi’s bail petition is scheduled to come up before a Delhi court on Saturday and the party hopes that her plea would be granted.An indication of the anticipation was evident in Karunanidhi’s response to the media outside party headquarters Anna Arivalayam. He said there was nothing to talk about on Friday, but promised something for Saturday.Kanimozhi’s mother Rajathi Ammal and her son Aditya, along with a battery of MPs, accompanied Karunanidhi to Delhi by air in the evening. Kanimozhi’s husband Aravindan is already camping in Delhi.“The DMK patriarch may make a courtesy call on recuperating UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday. No political meaning should be read into it,” a party source told Express. The meeting is expected to be at 9 am. “It will be a big relief for Karunanidhi if Kanimozhi gets bail. He hopes to return to Chennai with her on Saturday itself,” the source said.The party that has been struggling to fight back ever since the Assembly poll debacle, was not brooding over the dismal show in the local body elections, a senior leader said.Friday’s drubbing was its third in five months, the other two being the State Assembly polls and the Tiruchy-West by-election.A senior leader of the party admitted that the consecutive defeats were because of a huge generation gap in the party. “We have failed to groom the next generation into politics. We can now only pass on the message to the local functionaries to take the party to the students. Only with their potential, DMK was able to capture power in the State,” he said.“DMK treasurer M K Stalin, who was yet to recover from the defeat of former minister KN Nehru in the Tiruchy bypoll, was upset with the party’s performance on the whole,” the leader said and added, “Sitting DMK mayors and other heads of the local bodies still continue to figure in the bad books of the people.”Speaking to Express, T K S Elangovan, party MP and organising secretary, said that he could assign three reasons for the party’s defeat in the civic polls.“One, the money power of the ruling party used in the civic polls was above that of the DMK.“Two, the State Election Commission connived with the ruling party to ensure that the scales were tilted in favour of AIADMK.“And three, AIADMK candidates had cleverly portrayed that development work would continue only if ruling party candidates were elected to the local body. The false propaganda worked this time.” Intimidation of election officials by the ruling party on poll day also played a role, he claimed.
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