Former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader MK Alagiri on Thursday expressed his willingness to work under the leadership of his younger brother and party President MK Stalin if he is taken back into the party, reported PTI. “When we desire to be inducted into the party, we must then accept the [Stalin’s] leadership,” he said.

Stalin was elected the president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at the party’s general council meeting on Tuesday. He took over the post held by his father M Karunanidhi for 49 years before he died on August 7.

Speaking to reporters in Madurai, Alagiri said neither he nor his son Durai Dayanidhi have asked for a position as a condition before joining. “We are ready to join the party and work together, they are not taking us back,” he said. On Monday, Alagiri warned the party that there would be consequences if they did not take him back.

Alagiri was the party’s south zone organising secretary in Tamil Nadu but was expelled in 2014 for making derogatory statements about Stalin.

If the party does not take him back, Alagiri said he would decide on the next course of action after the rally he has organised in honour of Karunanidhi in Chennai on September 5. He said that the party general council, comprising 1,500 members, alone does not make up the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, reported The Hindu. “The real party cadres are with me,” he said. “The numbers will go up after the rally.”