Chennai, July 7 (IANS) DMK president M. Karunanidhi Thursday came out in support of Dayanidhi Maran, who quit as the central textiles minister, and blamed the media for tarnishing his name.

 
 Karunanidhi told reporters here: "The world over, more particularly in India, the rule of media exists. If they decide, they can defame anybody's name and Dayanidhi Maran is not a exception to that."
 
 He denied that he had a telephonic conversation with Congress president Sonia Gandhi Wednesday.
 
 Asked if he had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on replacing Maran following his resignation, Karunanidhi said this too was the media's imagination.
 
 The DMK, he said, would stand by Maran.
 
 A grand nephew of Karunanidhi, Maran resigned from Manmohan Singh's cabinet amid allegations of corruption levelled against him when he was earlier the communication minister.
 
 Another DMK leader, A. Raja, and Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi are also in prison over corruption charges.