Arumugham was happy to see me: Karunanidhi

DMK president M Karunanidhi on Thursday met his party’s senior colleague and former DMK minister Veerapandi Arumugham at the Vellore Central prison.

After a half-an-hour meeting, the DMK chief said he found Arumugham cheerful and in good health. “Arumugham was happy to see me”, he added. However, he did not divulge the details about the meeting.

Veerapandi Arumugham, who had been lodged in the Vellore prison, in connection with various cases had been receiving many of his party leaders as visitors. Party treasurer M K Stalin had met him at the prison on Tuesday, for the second time.

Karunanidhi’s visit to Vellore on Thursday was unscheduled and many of the party functionaries were not aware of it . Only after Karunanidhi had left Chennai at 9 am on Thursday, the news spread across and the enthusiastic cadre began installing party flags at some places in a hurried manner.

Party cadre had assembled in front of the prison in the morning to receive their leader. Most of them managed to get into the reception area along with Karunanidhi’s convoy, even as the security personnel strived hard to control them. Media persons had a tough time reaching out to the DMK chief.

A section of mediapersons squatted in front of the reception at the prison and raised slogans against the cadre who were blocking media interaction with the DMK chief. However, this helped in easing the situation as the cadre made way for the mediapersons to wait near the entrance. When Karunanidhi came out from the prison, the cadre and the security staff converged to go near him, once again blocking the mediapersons, much to their disappointment.