DMK seeks to buoy itself up with Karuna's birthday celebration

The celebrations are expected to buoy up sulking party cadres striving to galvanise themselves after the electoral drubbing at the hands of arch rival AIADMK in the April 2011 polls and Sankarankoil bypoll earlier this year.

The DMK patriarch is grappling with intra-party differences in the wake of the poll debacle even as a host of top leaders, former ministers Veerapandi S Arumugam and K N Nehru, among others, are facing cases pertaining to graft and land-grabbing.

Daughter Kanimozhi and party's 'Dalit face' and former Telecom Minister A Raja, both accused in the spectrum allocation scam, are now out on bail.

With sibling rivalry between Alagiri and Stalin grabbing the headlines once in a while, Karunanidhi had recently said persons who create trouble will be closely watched, sending out a message to supporters of both leaders.

His recent flip-flop on pulling out of the UPA over the petrol price hike is considered to have done his image no good.

As per the schedule released by DMK headquarters, on June 3 Karunanidhi will start the day by paying floral tributes at the memorials of his mentors, DMK founder C N Annadurai and rational leader E V Ramasamy.

He will later address a public meeting at K K Nagar here.