Patching Up on the WAY ....!!

DMK leader M K Stalin's birthday was the occasion when the estranged Maran brothers made up with the Karunanidhi family, after a year of feud.

The first public sign of the patch up was Kalanidhi Maran leaving Stalin`s residence after an hour-long meeting.

Maran said, ''Don`t make me a hero. The real hero is on stage.''

The reconciliation comes ten months after a family feud over a controversial opinion poll on the DMK patriarch's possible successors.

A survey that had led to violence in Stalin's elder brother Azhagiri`s stronghold in Madurai and Dayanidhi Maran's exit from the Union Cabinet.

Sources said that the peace deal was actually initiated last week by Stalin's sister Selvi, when he visited her in Bangalore.

This was followed by a secret meeting between Kalanidhi and his grand Uncle Karunanidhi on Saturday afternoon.

Relations between the Marans and Karunanidhi`s immediate family had recently worsened over a cable distribution tug of war.

The Chief Minister had warned Dayanidhi through the DMK journal Murasoli to go into hiding.

But does reconciliation means a political comeback for Dayanidhi? Sources close to the Marans say that for now the family comes above politics and business.