DMK partymen from Dharavi travel to Chennai for Kalaignar's last rites

MUMBAI: A small group of mourners from the Tamilian enclave of Dharavi hurriedly left for Chennai late on Monday night to attend the last rites of party leader M Karunanidhi.

Hotelier M Jesuraj, 50, who is the head of the DMK unit in Dharavi, had received an award from Karunanidhi personally in 2007 for organising a Nashik dhol parade in Tirunelveli. He said, "It does not matter if we fail to get a close glimpse of the cortege, it does not matter if we get crushed in the melee, we must be part of his last journey."

Jesuraj was a young boy of 16 when he joined the DMK. "I remember it was December 23, 1984 when Karunanidhi arrived to address a public rally at Dadar gymkhana. The entrance fee was Rs 10. I was so keen to hear him and there was no media back then to air his speech live. So I paid Rs 160 and took 16 Tamilian co-workers along. We all worked at restaurants in Zaveri Bazar and Kalbadevi. His oratory was so powerful I signed up for membership immediately. Since then I am a family loyalist," he recalls.

Over 18 years, Jesuraj fortified the DMK cadre as head of its Yuva Morcha in Mumbai, although the Congress remains the dominant party in Dharavi. ``Each year we organise a kabaddi match on Karunanidhi's birthday. We distribute saris and organise camps," he says.

In 1999 he invited Karunanidhi's son Stalin, who was then mayor of Chennai, to Mumbai and organised public meetings in Sion-Koliwada and Ambernath. "Now it is not possible to host stalwarts here. That event cost me Rs 25-30 lakh. Those days politicians would agree to stay in small hotels, now times have changed. Where are the funds to do so," Jesuraj says.