A united DMK family is good news for party cadres, say DMK leaders who declare that Stalin is a proven leader.

Chennai: Can the two brothers who fought bitterly for supremacy within the family that is ruling the DMK come to bury their differences and play along as one team?

This is the question agitating the minds of the DMK leaders and cadres as estranged elder brother MK Alagiri and DMK treasurer MK Stalin confabulated with their father M Karunanidhi at his residence around the same time.

The afternoon meeting sparked off speculations of a truce in the family feud with Karunanidhi slowly preparing to pass on the mantle to his chosen successor – MK Stalin, something that he has made it clear a few times in the past. Whether the DMK first family get united with possible re-entry of Alagiri into party fold, two and half years after his expulsion for anti-party activities, remains to be seen.

On Wednesday afternoon, Stalin came to his father’s residence at Goapalapuram at 12.05 p.m. and went inside to meet his father five minutes later. If Stalin came through the front door, his elder brother Alagiri entered Karunanidhi’s home through the back door around the same time.

Senior DMK leaders waited outside even as the meetings continued inside. It is being speculated that Alagiri could be given a responsible position within the party with an intention to rope in his strength in southern districts to help the party take on the AIADMK, including in the forthcoming local civic body polls.

There is absolutely no debate over the succession issue, as Stalin has already been anointed as the political successor by Kalaignar, said a senior DMK leader who said that Stalin too had proven himself time and again as the leader and his leadership was accepted across the party. “Even in the family, Kanimozhi and Alagiri are said to be not opposed to his leadership,” said another leader.

He said that if the family came together it would be a big boost to the cadres and a good message to send out that the DMK would be emerging stronger.

Political analysts see in Karunanidhi’s move to placate his elder son and also persuade Stalin to relent in the overall interests of the party, an effort to evolve consensus over the leadership issue within the family as also in the party.

Of course only after Karunanidhi calls it a day.