In May 2006, ‘Dinakaran’, the popular Tamil newspaper run by Kalanidhi Maran, carried an opinion poll on who would be the heir apparent of Karunanidhi.
The poll projected that 70 per cent respondents were supporting M.K. Stalin and a mere 2 per cent supported M.K. Azhagiri, Stalin’s elder brother. Some 20 per cent supported others — an oblique reference to Dayanidhi Maran, the younger brother of Kalanidhi Maran.
This infuriated M.K. Azhagiri, who was controlling South Tamil Nadu from his base at Madurai. The supporters of Azhagiri ransacked the Dinakaran office in Madurai and threw a petrol bomb inside the newspaper office leading to the death of three people.
The office of the Sun TV network in Madurai was also attacked and vandalized.
This was the first open power struggle in the DMK — read the Karunanidhi family and the veteran leader kept quiet.
Karunanidhi married thrice. With his first wife Padmavathi, he has a son M.K. Muthu who was a movie actor. Karunanidhi tried to bring him as a rival to MGR on the screen but did not succeed.
Karunanidhi’s second wife was Dayalu Ammal and he fathered M.K. Azhagiri, M.K. Tamilarasu, M.K. Stalin and a daughter M.K. Selvi.
From his third wife, Rajathi Ammal, Karunanidhi has a daughter, DMK leader and Member of Parliament, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi who is a journalist-turned-politician.
Of Karunanidhi’s six children and two grand nephews, four are in politics — M.K. Stalin, M.K. Azhagiri, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and his grand nephew, Dayanidhi Maran.
The fight in the family for the top slot was between Stalin and Azhagiri. In the DMK state council meet held on February 3, 2021 there was a heated debate on who would succeed Karunanidhi.
But after the rout of the DMK in the 2011 general elections in South Tamil Nadu, considered the bastion of Azhagiri, his succession plan was put on hold. Stalin on the other hand had the advantage of being an Emergency period prisoner who faced brutal police torture in the cell leading to the death of a DMK worker Chittababu while trying to save Stalin.
He was inducted into the Karunanidhi government in Tamil Nadu — only after he became a MLA for the fourth term that he became a minister in the cabinet of his father.
Stalin has a reputation of being a suave leader while Azhagiri was a rough and tough person and was accused of being involved in a political murder as also the attack on Dinakaran newspaper.
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi was more close to the elder brother Azhagiri than M.K. Stalin even though they were born to different mothers. Azhagiri it is said used to protect her ferociously against any personal or political attack on her.
However with Stalin emerging powerful after registering back to back victories since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the support base of Azhagiri has dwindled and even Kanimozhi has fallen in place.
The DMK has now been turned into a family business with M.K. Stalin being the undisputed leader while all his siblings are either silent or mute spectators in the game of politics in the DMK. Stalin has brought in his son Udayanidhi Stalin as his successor and reports are rife that he would soon be anointed as the Deputy Chief Minister with DMK senior and middle rung leaders clamouring for it.
With Stalin performing extremely well as chief minister and the principal opposition party, the AIADMK becoming a divided house, there is no opposition to him.
In such a political situation, even though family members like Azhagiri, Kanimozhi and Dayanidhi Maran are not happy, they don’t have a voice in the DMK. They have to either fall in line or face political oblivion which is the case with Azhagiri at present.
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