Kanimozhi stays away,Baalu out of reach

“I will be travelling,so I won’t be there. I will come for the Parliament session,” Kanimozhi told The Indian Express over the phone from Chennai. Baalu,who is incidentally the parliamentary party leader of the DMK,could not be reached despite repeated attempts.

Party leaders camping in Delhi for the swearing-in ceremony since Monday said they had no information on whether the sulking former Union minister for Shipping and Surface Transport would attend the ceremony.

Not that Azhagiri would be lacking company at his initiation into Delhi politics. Both mother Dayalu Ammal and brother M K Stalin will be attending the oath-taking,along with almost all DMK Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs,some state ministers and a couple of MLAs.

After taking oath,it is expected that all the DMK ministers would return to Chennai to take the blessings of DMK patriarch Karunanidhi,who had to curtail his travel plans owing to ill health. Many of the DMK nominees said they would be taking charge only next Monday.