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Stalin: The Rising Son?

By Ranjani Rajendra

Last updated: Feb 29 2008

Chennai: Born into the illustrious Karunanidhi family and named the DMK heir apparent is M K Stalin, the youngest son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi. The 54-year-old politician had to wait a long time to reach the stage he is at now; an almost de facto chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

Named after the famous Russian leader, Joseph Stalin, M K Stalin is married with two children. He graduated from the Madras Presidency College when – year?in History. His first tryst with politics was at the age of 14, when he campaigned for his cousin Murasoli Maran. This was when the DMK ousted the Congress from the State Secretariat and rode to power. By 1973, Stalin was voted into the DMK general committee and from then on began his flourishing political career that was (as most political careers are), fraught with ups and downs. One of the first hiccups being his jail term during the Emergency declared by then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. According to reports in India eNews, two DMK activists died while trying to shield him from the police blows in jail.

When the Emergency was suspended in 1977, the AIADMK was in power and the DMK was a mere shadow of its previously powerful self. It was only Stalin’s untiring efforts and hard work that reinstated the DMK to power, after the death of rival party AIADMK’s leader, MGR in 1989. He won the Assembly Elections from the Thousand Lights constituency in 1989, but could not retain the seat in 1991, when the AIADMK took over. In 1993, Vaiko was expelled from the DMK, due to his growing popularity which was seen as a threat to Stalin.

Stalin went on to become the mayor of Chennai in 1996. However in 2002 he had to give up his post as mayor, because of the ‘One-Man One-Post’ law that was passed by the ruling party (AIADMK), since he was both Mayor and a member of the Legislative Assembly. During his tenure as Mayor he sanctioned the construction of nine flyovers as a solution to the city’s growing traffic woes. Charges of corruption were slapped on him by the AIADMK that came to power shortly thereafter. As a result Stalin along with his father Karunanidhi and cousin Murasoli Maran were jailed in 2001. However, no chargesheet was ever been filed in this case.

In May 2004, Murasoli Maran’s son, Dayanidhi Maran was chosen as a candidate to the Lok Sabha and Stalin managed his poll campaign. Party leaders claim that the DMK returned to power in May 2006, due to Stalin’s efforts.
However while this might paint a rosy picture of a smooth sailing political career, this was not the case. In 2007, Stalin and Dayanidhi had a fall-out which led to the split in the DMK and causing the Karunanidhi family to relinquish their stake in the Sun Network and Dinakaran. They then set up Kalaignar TV. This fall-out was allegedly the result of Dinakaran publishing an opinion poll on who should be Karunanidhi’s heir, despite Karunanidhi specifically asking them not to for fear of creating a rift between his elder son Azhagiri and Stalin. What followed was an ugly battle between the two groups with Azhagiri’s supporters damaging the Sun TV office in Madurai and Dayanidhi being ousted from the Union Cabinet.

Considering all this, it might seem like the path to power has been paved for Stalin. Yet, this is not entirely the case. Senior political analyst, V Krishna Ananth said, “Earlier Azhagiri had been sent to Madurai under the pretext of managing Murasoli, the DMK paper. However, post the Dinakaran fiasco and the ouster of Dayanidhi, Azhagiri is once again gaining popularity. This is mainly due to the fact that Azhagiri is more street smart than his brother and is steadily gaining popularity.” With Azhagiri’s visits to the city gaining frequency, it seems like Stalin may have to contend with his brother once again.

email: ranjani.rj@gmail.com

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Editor : Karthik Krishnaswamy