Chennai: As a script writer he would have lived a life of obscurity in the shadows of film stars who enjoy cult status in Tamil Nadu. But sharp-tongued, quick-witted M. Karunanidhi had other plans. He outshone many a celebrity, as he presided over the destiny of the Dravidian state along with his tinsel town co-travellers and arch rivals in politics — M.G. Ramachandran and his protegee J. Jayalalithaa — for decades. That art and politics blended seamlessly in Karunanidhi was manifest from the sobriquets of ‘Thalaivar’ (The Leader) and ‘Kalaignar’ (The Artist) he earned from ardent followers. A masterful practitioner of modern-day politics, he wielded considerable influence beyond his own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time, sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the BJP, often drawing criticism from his rivals, who called him an opportunist. Muthuvel Karunanidhi, who became the Chief Minister five times, cut his teeth in politics as a 14-year-old when he participated in the anti-Hindi agitation in 1938 at his native Tiruvarur.
Hugely influenced by the rationalist and egalitarian ideology of E.V. Ramasamy ‘Periyar’ and DMK founder and the state’s first Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai, Karunanidhi became one of the most enduring mascots of the Dravidian Movement, which aimed at seeking equal rights for the depressed sections and women, and was against Brahminism. Elected to the Legislative Assembly 13 times, Karunanidhi, a political artiste, outmanoeuvred V.R. Nedunchezhian to become the CM for the first time following the death of Annadurai in February 1969.
M.G. Ramachandran, his junior and one of the most charismatic actors of his time, supported Karunanidhi in his endeavour to edge past Nedunchezhian, who was the number two in the Annadurai Cabinet. Years later, the two were to part ways, with MGR, as Ramachandran was popularly called, forming the AIADMK, the party which was to become a perennial thorn in Karunanidhi’s side. Karunanidhi was a legislator for six decades since 1957, when he won for the first time from Kulithalai constituency, till 2016, when he emerged victorious from Tiruvarur as a 92-year-old, barring the period between 1986 and 1989.
In 1984, he was elected to the Legislative Council, which was abolished by the MGR government in 1986. He had resigned as MLA in 1983 over the Srilankan Tamils issue. After assuming the reins of the government, Karunanidhi became the DMK chief in July 1969, a post that he held till death. He again became the chief minister in 1971, 1989, 1996 and 2006. When he lost power to friend-turned-foe MGR's protegee Jayalalithaa in 2011, he famously quipped “people have given me some rest”. Addressed as Mu Ka, Tamil abbreviation of his name, by his peers, Karunanidhi's letters to DMK cadres in party mouthpiece Murasoli and his autobiography-cum-commentary on contemporary politics Nenjukku Needhi, are the favourite reading material for his supporters.
