Who after me as DMK chief? Stalin, says Karunanidhi

Ending years of speculation about who would succeed him as party chief, DMK’s M Karunanidhi hinted today that his son Stalin would become the next party chief, leaving in doubt what role he foresaw for his other son MK Alagiri and daughter Kanimozhi.

“The answer for who is after me is Stalin,” Karunanidhi announced at a public function in Chennai today.

He also said he will work for the party till his last breath

Alagiri, a Union Minister and MP, has largely played a hands-off role in state politics with Stalin being the more visible of the two brothers at the party’s functions alongside his father.

Alagiri has had a large support base in some parts of the state like Madurai but hasn’t been the popular face of the party within the state. His performance in the last Assembly elections is also assumed to have made an impact on his chances as becoming party chief.

Karunanidhi has always refrained from naming either of his sons as the next party chief but most political observers believed that Stalin was in line to succeed his father as the party chief.

For Dravidian parties, the top leader always occupied the post of the general secretary while the slot of the president remained vacant for symbolic reasons.

Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi has also always had an important role in the party, despite her arrest in the 2G spectrum scam, but is largely seen to be the face of the party in Delhi. Perhaps Alagiri will also play a similar role, unless of course he has something to say about this succession plan.

In 1949, when the DMK was formed, CN Annadurai became the general secretary keeping the presidentship for Dravidian idealogue Periyar.

In 1972, when MGR formed AIADMK, he also followed the same principle, keeping the president’s post vacant for Annadurai. It was only Karunanidhi who changed this trend, taking up the presidentship while allowing a senior leader, K.Anbazhagan to become the general secretary.