M Karunanidhi’s condition stable, CM Palaniswami, top personalities visit hospital

Emerging out of the hospital, Palaniswami told reporters, “He is fine. A medical team is attending on him. Our Deputy CM O Panneerselvam and I along with DMK working president MK Stalin and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi visited him in person,” the Chief Minister replied, when asked if he met an ailing Karunanidhi. Other AIADMK Ministers KA Sengottaiyan, CVe Shanmugam and Vijaya Baskar were also present when the CM discussed the DMK chief’s health condition with Stalin at the hospital. 

Later in the day, Nationalist Congress Party chief and former union minister Sharad Pawar, CPI state secretary R Mutharasan, state Congress chief Su Thirunavukkarasar and MDMK leader Vaiko visited the hospital and made enquiries with Stalin. Two Sri Lankan Tamil MPs Arumugan Thondaiman and Senthil Thondaiman, representing their government, met Stalin and handed over a letter Sri Lankan president Maithirpala Srirsena had written, wishing the DMK chief speedy recovery. Isha founder Jaggi Vasudev, actors Sarathkumar, Surya and Sivakumar, former AIADMK leader Nanjil Sampath were also among the visitors.

Notably, the hospital has not issued a health bulletin since the one it had released at 9.50 pm on Sunday in which the doctors said the vital signs of the DMK chief normalized after his clinical condition suffered a transient setback. Rumours abound outside the hospital about another bulletin from the hospital before tonight, more so after Stalin and his wife Durga went to Gopalapuram this afternoon. Members of Karunanidhi clan and DMK leaders, even if not as frequent as Sunday, were shuttling between the hospital and their house throughout the day. 

Meanwhile, crowd swell in front of the hospital since last night continued on Monday with a few anxious cadre even tonsuring their head and performing pooja on Luz Church Road for their atheist leader under active medical support. So much so that Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani took exception to the reported participation of DMK organising secretary RS Bharati and Kancheepuram district secretary TM Anbarasan in a pooja on Sunday and made an appeal to DMK functionaries to abstain from superstitions promoted by believers and stay committed to the progressive ideology if they really respect their leader Karunanidhi.