A few weeks before the 2016 assembly elections, THE WEEK had asked former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi about the political future of his son, M.K. Stalin. The DMK patriarch was noncommittal. “I cannot predict when a flower will bloom,” he said. Five years later, there is no uncertainty. Stalin became the undisputed leader of the DMK after his father’s death in 2018, and is leading the party’s election campaign against a formidable alliance led by traditional rival AIADMK and the BJP.
Stalin, 68, has displayed enough ideological flexibility to reinvent the grand old Dravidian party and prepare it for the challenges of new-age politics. “Stalin might not be flamboyant or articulate like the old Dravidian ideologists. He is a cautious person and a gradualist, who proceeds step by step,” said Ramu Manivannan, professor and head of the department of politics and public administration, University of Madras.
Stalin’s journey to the top was never an easy one. His political journey started in 1967—he was 14 when he campaigned for his uncle Murasoli Maran, who won from the Madras South Lok Sabha constituency. He was jailed during the Emergency and had to work hard for several years before Karunanidhi elevated him in the party hierarchy. “Stalin has worked really hard to reach where he is today. He is a natural leader of our party,” said DMK spokesperson T.K.S. Elangovan.
The first major administrative assignment Karunanidhi gave Stalin was the post of Chennai mayor. When he assumed office in 1996, he was just 44, and was the first directly elected mayor of the metropolis. Stalin implemented several development projects and earned a reputation of being a good administrator. But he was forced to step down in 2001 when the AIADMK government under J. Jayalalithaa introduced an amendment barring MLAs from holding more than one elected office. Stalin, then MLA from Thousand Lights, chose to give up the post of mayor.
The DMK alliance’s massive defeat in the 2001 assembly elections was a major setback for Stalin. Senior leaders of the party, including his uncle Maran, were upset about the coalition stitched together by Stalin. With the DMK winning just 27 seats, Stalin’s chances of a rapid rise in the party hierarchy were hurt.
Two years later, Stalin was appointed deputy general secretary of the DMK, and for the next three years, he worked hard across Tamil Nadu, reinvigorating the party and preparing for the 2006 assembly elections. Many of his loyal supporters, too, were given party posts. The DMK won a majority in the assembly elections and Stalin was inducted into the cabinet. Three years later, he was named the first deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
Although Stalin was his chosen political successor, Karunanidhi never gave him a free rein. He was made working president of the DMK only in 2016, but even then Karunanidhi kept a tight grip over the party. Stalin’s actual ascension to power came only after Karunanidhi’s death in 2018. “Stalin could not become DMK president so long as his father was alive. Even his father did not trust him,” quipped Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami at a recent campaign rally.
Karunanidhi’s demise in 2018 was an emotional shock for the DMK, with Stalin weeping publicly and penning an emotional poem in memory of his father. But more than the tears, it was the grit that he displayed in taking on the AIADMK government that made him popular among the DMK cadre. “Stalin has acquired leadership qualities. He has served the party for a long time and is also an able administrator,” said former Rajya Sabha MP T.K. Rengarajan.
Stalin’s leadership qualities and political acumen came to the fore after he assumed the DMK leadership. Critics predicted a split in the DMK, with Stalin’s elder brother M.K. Alagiri leading a rival faction. But Stalin ensured that the leaders and the cadre stayed with him. The DMK had survived the splits led by M.G. Ramachandran and Vaiko in the past. So Stalin was confident that despite the challenges, the DMK cadre would not desert the party. When Alagiri announced that he had his own political plans, Stalin chose to remain silent. Alagiri was supposed to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Chennai on November 27. But the Maran siblings intervened on behalf of Stalin and persuaded Alagiri to stay away from the meeting. DMK general secretary Durai Murugan had a long telephone conversation with Alagiri and convinced him that Karunanidhi’s family members could never join hands with the BJP. “If Stalin had commented or taken any action, it would have backfired. His silence worked best,” said a DMK leader.
Stalin remained cool even when two DMK MLAs, Ku Ka Selvam and P. Saravanan, joined the BJP. “We need a leader who can keep the flock together and fight the challenge posed to the Dravidian movement. Stalin is the right person to lead now,” said Elangovan.
Unlike Karunanidhi, who capitalised on the factional feud in the AIADMK in 1989 to return to power after a gap of 13 years, Stalin has made it clear that he is ready to wait for the right moment to become chief minister. While many critics blamed him for not using the opportunity provided by Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, Stalin said he did not want a back-door entry to the corridors of power. “Patience is his biggest asset. Be it the long wait to ascend to the DMK throne or the wait to win an election, he has been remarkably patient,” said Manivannan.
With the DMK’s massive victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Stalin has shown that he can win elections on his own and he is now the face of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu. He has reenergised the DMK, and has made his family—with the exception of Alagiri—rally behind him. After complaints that he did not give enough space to his sister, Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi, and also to the Maran clan, he ensured that their concerns were properly addressed. “He has turned very inclusive these days. He wants the party to be vibrant and active,” said P. Ramajayam, academic and political analyst. DMK sources said there would be changes at all levels in the party hierarchy if it wins the elections.
The BJP’s aggressive push in the Dravidian heartland poses a new challenge, both ideologically and administratively. The BJP’s control over the levers of power in Delhi and its aggressive hindutva campaign in Tamil Nadu have become major challenges for the DMK. “We will continue to oppose attempts to take the country along the path of right-wing thinking. And we will oppose attempts to create divisions in society in the name of religion,” Stalin told THE WEEK.
Manivannan said only the DMK was capable of fighting the BJP’s ideology of cultural absorption. But the DMK has adopted a soft hindutva stance in the assembly polls. The party manifesto talks about subsidies for pilgrims and for refurbishing temples and also an allocation of Rs1,000 crore for temple rehabilitation. But Manivannan said it was not soft hindutva. “I look at it as a counter challenge so that the BJP does not hijack religion as an issue. The DMK voters are perhaps religious, but they are against superstition and caste hierarchy.”
The DMK is also troubled by legal issues such as the 2G spectrum case and the proceedings of the Enforcement Directorate against senior party leader and Lok Sabha member Jagathrakshakan. Another challenge for Stalin is the DMK’s poor record on law and order issues. People still remember the arrogance of DMK leaders during the party’s 2006-11 tenure and also the many instances of land grabbing.
His supporters, however, are confident that Stalin will emerge victorious this time. “The DMK is the only party which fights against religious forces,” said Rajiv Gandhi, a Tamil nationalist politician who recently quit Seeman’s Naam Thamilar Katchi and joined the DMK. “I feel Stalin is the only leader who can fill the void created by the death of Karunanidhi in fighting these forces.”