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STATES: ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
2001
The Son Has Risen
After five years
of grooming, M.K. Stalin is ready to succeed Karunanidhi as leader of
the DMK
By Arun Ram
It was not too long
ago that Madras was renamed Chennai. The joke doing the rounds in opposition
circles these days is that the capital of Tamil Nadu is again up for christening
and that its new name will be Stalingrad. As the campaign for the assembly
elections goes into third gear, it is becoming increasingly clear that
the polls have ceased to be a Karunanidhi vs Jayalalitha battle. The primary
target of the Jayalalitha-led combine is no more the chief minister, her
bitterest foe for the past two decades. It is instead the chief minister's
youngest son, M.K. Stalin, the mayor of Chennai.
As a legislator, Stalin's experience encompasses
all of five years. In the ruling DMK itself, there are scores of partymen
who were accomplished leaders while Stalin was still a schoolboy. Yet,
it is Stalin that the party has accepted as its future leader after the
77-year-old Karunanidhi steps down. The May 10 polls, in which Stalin
is contesting from the Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai, will decide
how long he will have to wait to accept this preordained role. A DMK victory
will augur his ascension sooner than expected, but the 49-year-old has
already started looking and feeling like the man at the helm.
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IN FAMOUS FOOTSTEPS: (Left) Stalin with Karunanidhi; (right) the
pen has passed on to a new generation
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It was recent developments that illustrated the
pivotal position that Stalin has begun to occupy within the party. Though
Karunanidhi deputed his ministers Arcot N. Veerasamy and K. Anbazhagan
to oversee candidate selection, it was Stalin who monitored the process.
The Stalin hand was evident not only in the choice of alliance partners
but also in the division of seats. Says a DMK functionary: "Karunanidhi
gave Stalin a reasonably free hand in organisational matters. We see it
as a dress rehearsal to the eventual handing over of the reins."
The "rehearsal" has ruffled feathers
not just of the alliance partners but within the DMK too. Vaiko's second
parting of ways with the DMK in eight years was simply waiting to happen,
for it was never a secret that he could not come to terms with Stalin's
increasing influence over internal DMK decisions and intra- party relationships
within the front.
To a lesser extent was the damage inflicted
on the DMK by the defection of one of its ministers, Tamizhkudimagan,
to the Jayalalitha camp just a few days before the election schedule was
announced. "There is no place for people like me who have put in
15 years of service for the party. Everything in the DMK now revolves
around Stalin," said Tamizhkudimagan who changed loyalties after
being denied the ticket for his native constituency, Ilayangudi.
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FORCED VACANCY: The exit of Maran (left) has been ascribed to Stalin's
influence
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These, of course, were minor hiccups compared
to last week's shocker. Union Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran-the chief
minister's nephew and party ideologue-announced his decision to retire
from active politics. Maran's recent spells in private hospitals in Delhi
and Chennai and the hasty announcement of his retirement fuelled all kinds
of rumours. The most serious is that like others who walked out, it was
Stalin's dominant role that prompted Maran's early exit.
The path to Stalin's coronation has been slow
but steady. But it was not until the 1996 corporation polls, which saw
Stalin becoming Chennai's mayor, that he became a man to be reckoned with.
Officials of the Chennai Corporation feel that Stalin's five years in
power have trebled his aptitude and experience. Says an official: "He
can be stern and accommodative at the same time. Although you cannot compare
him with his father, he does have unmistakable leadership qualities."
The grooming of Stalin has been so impeccable
that protests from senior leaders like Veerasamy and Anbazhagan are yet
to be heard. Anbazhagan gushes, "The reins of the Dravidian movement
has always been in safe hands-from Periyar to Anna to Kalaignar and now
to Stalin and in the future to his son." Translated, the message
is: those who want to be in the DMK have to accept Stalin. Those who cannot,
like Vaiko, will find themselves out in the cold.
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