Maran trying to make peace with MK

New Delhi: Former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, who was asked to submit his resignation from the Cabinet after the Dinakaran episode, is in the Capital fuelling speculation that Delhi may play mediator between him and his granduncle, DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

Dayanidhi’s unceremonious exit from the Cabinet was a fallout of the survey that was published in the daily Dinakaran, owned by Dayanidhi's elder brother and media magnate Kalanidhi Maran, which showed that 70 per cent of people were in favour of Karunanidhi’s younger son Stalin as his heir apparent rather than elder son Azhagiri.

It has been said in the political circles that Sun TV network, which owns Dinakaran, has held out an olive branch to the DMK but Karunanidhi is not relenting and has stepped up the war between the Marans and the Karunanidhis.

However, after submitting his resignation Dayanidhi has repeatedly sworn his loyalty to the DMK.

On his way out he had said, “I was born as a DMK man and I will die a DMK man. Even if I am expelled from the party, I will die as a DMK sympathiser. No one can take away that right from me. Whatever I am today, it is because of my leader.”

Now, the word doing the rounds in Delhi's political circles is that Maran is trying hard to make peace with Karunanidhi and hopes he will be able to drum up some support from sympathisers like Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

On Wednesday evening, Dayanidhi met the PM and Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh. However, he still has not had a chance to meet Sonia Gandhi.

So will Maran succeed in convincing the Centre to break its silence and mediate a truce with his estranged granduncle?

Dayanidhi’s meteoric rise

In 2003, the DMK was dealt with a severe blow in the death of union minister Murasoli Maran, who was the face of DMK in Delhi and was said to have acted as the "conscience of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi".

When the party was looking for a suitable replacement to liaise and coordinate with Delhi, the DMK chief's first choice was Murasoli Maran's first son Kalanidhi.

However, when he turned it down citing his business commitments, the responsibility fell on the shoulders of Dayanidhi to step into his father's shoes.

All of a sudden, young Dayanidhi was in the limelight when he was fielded as DMK candidate for the Central Chennai constituency, represented by his late father, in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

With his sophisticate looks and designer clothes, he stood apart from the rest of dhoti-clad politicians and presented a new image to the public.

He contested successfully from Central Chennai Lok Sabha seat and was made a Cabinet minister and was given a plum portfolio.

He functioned as DMK's man at the Centre and interacted with the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi on behalf of Karunanidhi, living up to the role that he was assigned.

However, after taking over as IT minister, Dayanidhi took everyone by surprise with his remarkable transformation.

He not only went on to become the party's national face, outshining seniors like T R Baalu and A Raja, but also turned out to be one of the star campaigners for DMK in the 2006 Assembly elections.

But his instant rise to success was cut short with the Dinakaran episode. With political permutations and combinations being played at all the levels in the Centre as well as Chennai, one has to wait and watch to see if Karunanidhi is willing to forget and forgive the Marans.