Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will inaugurate ‘Kalaignar Kottam’ in Tiruvarur on June 20, as part of the birth centenary celebrations of late DMK leader and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
The announcement was made on Sunday after the ruling DMK’s high-level strategy committee met at Anna Arivalayam in Chennai. Party president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin chaired the meeting.
The decision to invite Mr. Nitish Kumar is a continuation of Mr. Stalin’s efforts to reach out to non-BJP leaders in different parts of the country. In recent weeks, Mr. Nitish Kumar has also been holding consultations with leaders of various parties to form a broad non-BJP platform at the national level ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha election to prevent the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from scoring a hat trick. Mr. Kumar is among the non-BJP Chief Ministers the DMK is associating itself with and has been inviting for party and government functions in the recent times. The others are West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal. The DMK’s high-level strategy committee also resolved to fund the educational expenses of 100 deserving students in each district and set up ‘Kalaignar Padippagam’ — a reading space with Internet connections — for the benefit of people. It decided to honour DMK functionaries, aged above 70, for their contributions to the party and install statues and busts of the late DMK leader in the districts.
Mr. Stalin reviewed the arrangements being made for the inauguration of the year-long celebrations on June 3. On the first day, leaders of the Secular Progressive Alliance will take part at a grand event in Chennai. The party named A. Raja, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, ‘Tiruchi’ Siva, Dayanidhi Maran, R.S. Bharathi and T.K.S. Elangovan as members of the panel in charge of organising the celebrations.
