DMK president M Karunanidhi, who is being treated for fever due to urinary tract infection, was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai in the early hours of Saturday.

Karunanidhi, 94, was admitted in the intensive care unit of Kauvery Hospital at 1.30 am. The hospital said in a statement he was brought there after his blood pressure had dropped.

“His blood pressure has been stabilised with medical management and he continues to be monitored and treated by the panel of experts,” said the hospital.

Several senior DMK leaders, including working president M K Stalin and his estranged elder brother M K Alagiri were at the hospital, besides other frontline leaders such as Duraimurugan, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and former Union minister A Raja.

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Party cadres had poured in near the hospital complex after receiving news that Karunanidhi had been taken there. They were chanting “long live Thalaivar” (leader), while many were holding Karunanidhi’s photos as they waited outside the hospital.

The DMK leaders had visited Karunanidhi at his home in Gopalapuram area before he was taken to the hospital. Among the visitors was Alagiri, who was expelled from the party by the DMK chief in January 2014 after a prolonged struggle for power with Stalin.

Hours before Karunanidhi was moved to the hospital, Stalin had said the former Tamil Nadu chief minister’s health was improving. On Wednesday, he had assured people that there was nothing to worry about his father’s health. Doctors from Kauvery Hospital were monitoring his health.

Security was tightened at the former Tamil Nadu chief minister’s residence as DMK cadres kept pouring in there as well.

For the last two years, the DMK president had not been making any public appearance owing to his ill health.

Karunanidhi has not been keeping well since October 2016, when he fell ill due to a drug-induced allergy.

The veteran leader was admitted to hospital for “optimisation of nutrition and hydration” in the first week of December that year and later, due to a throat and lung infection.

He had undergone tracheostomy, a procedure to optimise breathing.

Karunanidhi entered his 50th year as party chief on 27 July.

(With PTI)