Chennai: DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s reaffirmation that former Union Minister and elder son Alagiri’s exile from the party will continue may mean nothing as far as younger son and party treasurer Stalin’s ascendancy to the throne is concerned. Kalaignar appears to have given a clear indication that he will lead the battle as the Chief Minister candidate in the forthcoming Assembly election. Tiruvarur will be his constituency.
The DMK has closed its counters for receiving applications for tickets on February 6. By then, several party members had filed the nominations in his name for Tiruvarur though Karunanidhi himself did not file any application either for Tiruvarur or for any other constituency. Same was the case with son Stalin’s Kolathur, where many loyalists filed nominations in Thalapathi’s name.
The 92-year-old veteran leader of several poll battles had already toured the district to be in touch with the people in the historic town, which was the capital of Chola kings for a few centuries.
He also said he would contest in Tiruvarur if the party allowed him and the people wished for it, making it clear that he is eyeing sixth term as Chief Minister and 13th term as a member of the Assembly.
Besides, he has met the people in his former constituencies Saidapet and Chepauk after the floods that ravaged the city and distributed flood relief materials, renewing his ties with the public.
Almost a decade ago, at a youth wing conference in Tirunelveli, Stalin was expected to get the top post of either the party president or the Chief Minister. Reacting to reports that Stalin would be made the CM, Karunanidhi had then quipped that the expectations of journalists and cadre would be fulfilled. The announcement was made on December 17, 2007, amid intermittent rains and earlier, Karunanidhi had set the mood by writing a series of articles “Let us give way for youths”.
But, even after a decade, there are no indications that the 63-year-old youth wing leader’s ‘agonising’ wait could come to an end,
Stalin’s ‘Namakku Naamey’ campaign had all the trappings of a Chief Ministerial candidate’s tour, but then he was quick in asserting that Kalaignar will be the party’s CM nominee, much to the disappointment of the youth wings.
The political scene in Tamil Nadu has been dominated by contests between AIADMK founder and matinee idol MGR and Karunanidhi and later between AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi for the last four decades.
Going by the previous trends, it is said the senior DMK leaders are reluctant to pitch Stalin against Jayalalithaa.
Another hurdle for Stalin is said to be DMK’s possible allies, especially DMDK leader Vijayakanth, are in no mood to accept the youth wing leader as a CM candidate.
Asked about possibilities of Stalin being projected as CM candidate, a DMK
veteran quipped, “We will accept whatever is decided by Thalaivar and Thalapathy. Both are like our two eyes. We do not prefer anyone over the other”.
