MK Stalin Takes Over Reins Of DMK

MK Stalin was today elected the new president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam unopposed, assuming the reins of Tamil Nadu's main opposition party that his father–the late M Karunanidhi–controlled for nearly half a century.

The elevation of Stalin, the DMK working president whom Karunanidhi had anointed his successor during his lifetime after his health started worsening, was announced at a meeting of the DMK's General Council by party general secretary K Anbazhagan.

His was the only nomination for the top party position, Anbazhagan said, as DMK leaders and workers greeted the announcement of the elevation of “Thalapathy” with loud cheers.

Stalin disregarded whimpers of protest by his elder brother MK Alagiri. A week after Karunanidhi's death on Aug. 7, Alagiri, a former union minister who was expelled from the DMK by his father in 2014 at the height of his fight for supremacy with Stalin, had hinted at a succession battle with the younger sibling, claiming “real” party men were with him.

He had yesterday warned of “consequences” for the DMK if he was not taken back, and said that since “Kalaingar (Karunanidhi) is not there now, the party has to be saved and protected”.

Alagiri, who has pockets of influence in the Madurai region, has planned a rally of his supporters on Sept. 5.

In his maiden address to the General Council after his election, Stalin asked the party cadre to teach a lesson to the National Democratic Alliance government, accusing it of trying to polarise the country. “The Narendra Modi government is trying to paint the nation in the colour saffron (a symbol of Hindutva). Let's teach it a lesson.”

Targeting the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu, he called it a “spineless” dispensation which needed to be “thrown out.”