DMK working president MK Stalin will be chairing the first formal meeting of an emergency meeting of its executive council, the top decision-making body of the party, on August 14. The meeting has been convened to formalise the election of the new leader in place of M Karunanidhi who passed away on August 7 after battling for life at a private hospital in Chennai.

According to DMK sources, the meeting is expected to fix a date for formal coronation of Stalin as the leader of the party. The meeting will formally choose successor of Karunanidhi.

It is considered a matter of formality as Kalaignar had on several occasions declared that Stalin would be succeeding him. “If anything happens to me, Stalin will be the Chief Minister,” Karunanidhi had told a private television channel in one of his last interviews before falling ill.

His illness had kept him out of political action for nearly two years, during the period which Stalin took charge of the party as the Working President of the party.

There is speculation in the party circles if Stalin would allow re-entry of his elder brother MK Alagiri into the party. He was thrown out of the party by Karunanidhi two years ago for his anti-party activities.

There is considerable amount of pressure from the family on Stalin to reconsider the decision and allow Alagiri to mend ways and return. Before his ouster from the party, Alagiri was considered as the strongman of the Southern districts, but over the past two years, Stalin weakened him considerably by placing his handpicked men in key positions in all districts.

His control over the party apparatus is more or less complete, said a senior DMK leader who is also a Rajya Sabha member.