Coimbatore: "If you fix a date, I will
retire from politics," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK
patriarch M Karunanidhi said in a lighter vein today.
Replying to repeated and specific questions from
reporters on his earlier hints of retirement, Karunanidhi said
he has never used the word retire.
"If journalists in Coimbatore want me to quit, you fix a
date and I will do so," he said at a press conference here at
the end of the five day world classical Tamil conference, his
pet project.
Asked about the possibility of early assembly polls in
view of the "success" of the Tamil conference, Karunanidhi
said "are elections more important when the issue of Tamil
language is being taken up?"
Karunanidhi had dropped hints about staying away from
active politics, fuelling speculation that he might retire
after the World Classical Tamil Conference to hand over the
mantle to his son and Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin.
However, amid reports of a succession war between Stalin
and his elder brother et union minister M K Alagiri,
Karunanidhi had subsequently refrained from making any
reference to the issue.
PTI
