TN CM warns Marans 'before they go into hiding'

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has declared an open war on his grand nephews Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi Maran.

A few weeks back in Chennai when former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran complained to the city police that he had been receiving threats he had said, "I am sure all this is happening without the Chief Minister's knowledge. I hope he will put an end to all these atrocities."

But what made the DMK chief burst out in a fit of anger was when Maran made himself conspicuous by sitting behind Railway Minister Lalu Prasad during the Railway Budget and then to make matters worse, Maran met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and told her that he and his brother Kalanidhi need SPG protection.

"The one's I had brought up on my shoulders have today taken the sword out against me," Karunanidhi wrote in a stinging poem referring to the Maran brothers.

"Let them take this as a warning and go into hiding," The Chief Minister added.

A bitter family feud between the Marans and Karunanidhi led to Dayanidhi Maran's exit from the Union Cabinet in May 2007. Then the DMK launched Kalaignar TV to counter the Maran family's Sun Network and now there's an ongoing bitter turf war for the state's cable business.

Another dimension to this battle came forward when on AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa's birthday many party advertisements went to a newspaper owned by the Maran Family's Sun Network.

While that raised a lot of eyebrows, it's also perhaps a reminder that this may not the last episode in the Marans versus Karunanidhi political soap opera.