Coming out of father Karunanidhi’s shadow; M K Stalin becomes the new Thalaiva, elected as President of DMK

NewsBharati    28-Aug-2018
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Chennai, August 28: In a quest to rein the throne of the opposition party, MK Stalin has been elected president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (DMK), Tamil Nadu's main opposition party. Stalin had filed his nomination on Sunday. Nearly 65 DMK district secretaries proposed his name for the post.

 
M K Stalin, 65, was the party's working president. His father, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, served as its president until his death on August 7. Muthuvel Karunanidhi reined the party for almost 49 years of his political career and was regarded as a strong opposition party in the state of Tamil Nadu.
 
The DMK's General Council meeting is underway. Around 4,000 members are participating in the meeting which is being held at the party's headquarters in Chennai. The party has now passed a resolution urging the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna to M Karunanidhi. The party has also decided against creating a post of DMK chairperson. A resolution to this effect has been passed.

Stalin, who has been at the helm of DMK’s affairs since the run-up to the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections in 2016, was appointed ‘working president’ of the party in 2017. He is the third leader for the party, after founder C N Annadurai and Karunanidhi.

Coming out of father Karunanidhi’s shadow, M K Stalin will be well aware of the huge boots he has to fill. As he steps into his new role, Stalin will know comparisons with his father Karunanidhi, are inevitable and will carry the burden of a legacy that comes from being the ‘leader’s son’. While Stalin’s rise in DMK’s ranks has not been meteoric in his five-decades-old political career, it was only after his brother Alagiri’s ouster from the party in 2014 that he got the much-needed elbow room, and only after Karunanidhi retired from active politics did he emerge as the working president.

M K Stalin is now Chief of the DMK. After years of being second in command, the leader now holds reins of the party. Stalin's elevation comes at a time when Tamil Nadu is witnessing a political churn, following the death of J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi. With the 2019 Lok Sabha elections around the corner and two significant bypolls coming up, Stalin has his work cut out. His brother M K Alagiri, who has warned of consequences if not readmitted in the party, also poses a challenge for Stalin.


M K Stalin Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam President Tamil Nadu