Chennai, Aug. 22: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, an ally of the BJP at the Centre, may soon be easing out its old guard and making way for a younger generation to take up the 53-year-old party’s leadership.

DMK president and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi indicated this at a public meeting in Chennai, saying it was not for him to be the “permanent political guru”.

The public meeting was the last of a series of DMK rallies held across the state to protest against the ruling ADMK’s “atrocities” against DMK activists trying to set up gruel centres (soup kitchens) for distressed handloom weavers.

“Nobody is permanent and I am also not cast for any such permanent role,” Karunanidhi said in response to cries from a section of the crowd that he was the “eternal beacon of Tamil Nadu”.

The DMK chief told his supporters that Mother Nature would never permit such permanency, adding he could at best be “a qualitatively better guiding spirit” for the party.

“I do not want to impose myself as a dictator to run the party till the end,” Karunanidhi said, adding that DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan, treasurer Arcot N.Veerasamy, himself and the party’s governing general council had a responsibility to entrust the party’s affairs to the younger generation.

DMK insiders read Karunanidhi’s remarks as a hint to old-timers to keep away from the party’s ongoing organisational elections at the taluka and district levels, giving fresh blood an opportunity to take hold of the party’s reins.

DMK sources said Karunanidhi chose last night’s meeting to speak out his mind on the issue in light of the bitter factional battles that broke out recently in Madurai between supporters of Karunanidhi’s younger son, M.K Stalin and elder son, M.K. Azhagiri.

Deeply disturbed by the infighting, Karunanidhi is working out an internal power-sharing mechanism that would balance the factional interests and permanently put an end to internal feuding in the party, sources added.

Karunanidhi’s remarks also imply major changes in the DMK’s general council, source said. Though he may still continue as party president, it seems he would like to play an advisory role in the days to come, like other DMK veterans such as Union industries minister Murasoli Maran.

Though the wrap-up stages of the organisational polls, when office-bearers of the state headquarters (Thalamai Kazhagam) in Chennai, including the party president, are elected, Stalin may be headed for a significantly higher post in the party hierarchy.

DMK is witnessing a revival, thanks to the repeated onslaughts by the ruling ADMK, sources said. Karunanidhi is keen to consolidate the gains on this front while keeping an eye on the external developments.

The arrest of MDMK chief Vaiko under the Prevention of Terrorism Act has already turned him into a national celebrity and a reunited Congress in Tamil Nadu is waiting to club together an alternative front.

DMK sources said, at a time like this, Karunanidhi wanted to take no chances to ensure that his party stayed on its course.

In another development, Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker K. Kalimuthu has accepted the plea by the five rebel TMC MLAs to continue as TMC members inside the House despite the party’s merger with the Congress on August 14.