Ready to accept Stalin's leadership says M K Alagiri

Agencies

August 30, 2018

Madurai, Aug 30: Sending out a signal that he was prepared to bury the hatchet, M K Alagiri today said he was ready to accept the leadership of his younger brother and DMK chief M K Stalin if he was readmitted into the party fold.

The estranged elder brother of Stalin said neither he nor his son Durai Dayanidhi yearned for any position in the party.

"When we desire to be inducted into the party, we must then accept the (Stalin's) leadership, isn't it," Alagiri told reporters when asked if he was ready to accept the leadership of his younger brother if he was readmitted into the party.

The former Union Minister said he was ready to work alongside the top party leadership, apparently referring to Stalin, and added that he and his supporters have been reiterating it.

"We are ready to join the party and work together, they are not taking us back," he said.

Under such circumstances, he said the next course of action -if he and his supporters are not admitted- would be decided after the rally to be held next month.

A decision on the future course of action would be decided after consultations with leaders, he said.

When pointed out that the DMK general council had elevated Stalin unanimously, he shot back: "Is the general council alone the party? ...do 1,500 members of the council alone represent the DMK?.. the cadres are on my side, after next month's rally more will come to my side."

Stalin was on August 28 elevated as the DMK President, being elected unopposed to the top post.

At the party's General Council meeting held in Chennai, DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan said Stalin was elected unopposed, as he was the sole candidate who had filed nomination for the party chief's post on August 26.

The elder son of late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, also said he did not know what was preventing his return to the party.

"Truth will always get support," he said and reiterated that the true loyalists of Karunanidhi were on his side.

On the proposed rally on September 5 in Chennai to Karunanidhi's mausoleum, he said there will not be less than "one lakh" participants.

Alagiri had days ago announced that he would lead a rally to the mausoleum of Karunanidhi here, touted as a show of strength by his supporters.

Alagiri has been in political hibernation since his expulsion from the party in 2014 by Karunanidhi.

The former union minister was sacked at the height of his fight with Stalin over establishing supremacy in the party.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

Comments