Udhayanidhi Stalin’s great challenge Premium

If Udhayanidhi Stalin does not rise to the occasion, it could affect the Dravidian movement

M.K. Stalin, who had waited for decades to become president of the DMK and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, seems to have fast-tracked the rise of his son, Udhayanidhi Stalin. The younger Stalin, a debutant Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development, and secretary of the DMK’s youth wing, has climbed the political ladder quickly. There is now intense speculation that he could be elevated as Deputy Chief Minister.

While Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin has sought to play down the rumours saying he “values the post of the secretary of the youth wing above all positions”, senior leaders and ministers believe there is “no smoke without fire.” They have reasons to say this. When there were whispers earlier that Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin and his brother-in-law Sabareesan would join politics, Mr. Stalin had said no one from his family would enter politics, but it did not take long for him to contradict his statements.

Back then, it was a different time in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Stalin, who had inherited the party from his father, DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi, was wary of public opinion against the elevation of his son. Mr. Stalin had taken over as DMK working president when Karunanidhi was inactive in politics due to old age, but still had a significant presence in the party. The AIADMK, the main opposition party, which was in power after the death of its leader Jayalalithaa, could claim the moral high ground saying it was free from the pressures of family politics.

The 2021 Assembly polls were crucial for the DMK, which had been out of power for 10 years, and Mr. Stalin was worried that his son’s rise could work against the party. But the death of Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi would have emboldened him to appoint his son — first as secretary of the youth wing and later as the DMK candidate for the Thiruvallikeni-Chepauk Assembly constituency.

It is not as if Mr. Udhayanidhi was given everything on a platter. He proved himself as a campaigner during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2021 Assembly polls, by holding a single piece of brick, he conveyed the message that the BJP-led Central government had not done anything beyond announcing that it would set up an All Indian Institute of Medical Science in Madurai. He had already gained attention in Tamil Nadu as an actor even though none of his films, barring Maamannan, a political drama that was released after the 2021 Assembly polls, carried a strong social message.

The DMK won the Assembly elections comfortably in 2021. However, despite the fact that Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin had gained acceptance among the party leaders and cadres alike, Mr. Stalin did not include his son in his Cabinet. Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin had to wait for more than a year to find a place in the cabinet and rank ninth in seniority in the ministry.

Clad in jeans and tee shirts with a logo of the party’s youth wing, Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin has refused to be bogged down by embarrassing questions, such as those relating to dynasty politics. He has shown that he is capable of handling major political issues, such as the uproar that followed his comments on Sanatana Dharma. At the same time, he has not made any significant change that is expected of a successor. Whenever he was expected to be proactive in dealing with certain issues, he has left them to be tackled by his father. For instance, the recent hooch tragedy in Kallakurichi, which claimed the lives of 67 people, provided a great opportunity for him to rise to the occasion. But the DMK government handled it the way the previous governments in the State did. The killing of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Armstrong and the gunning down of one of his assassins after their arrest speak poorly of the planning and performance of the government.