Emotions ran high among hundreds of workers belonging to the DMK who had gathered at Chintadripet in Chennai on Tuesday evening to listen to party chief M Karunanidhi’s address at the grand finale of the campaign for his grand-nephew Dayanidhi Maran who is the party candidate at Chennai Central. When he started the speech in his customary style “Ennudaya uyirinum melaaka udanpirappukale... (My brothers and sisters who are dear to me more than my life…), there was a slur as Karunanidhi himself choked with emotions.
Though his official date of birth is June 3, 1924, Karunanidhi in a speech at Coimbatore on April 5 said that he was 91. If that is true, the 2014 lok Sabha elections could be the swansong for Kalaignar, as he is known among party workers. Watching him speaking at different constituencies, one got the impression that the DMK chief is losing out to age and time. His speeches have lost their old charm and at times coherence also.
The Chintadripet speech resembled a farewell address than his routine speeches which were rich in sarcasm for his rivals, erudition for the intelligentsia and his followers.
He is the eldest politician in the country who is still campaigning out in the scorching sun, though well protected from the powerful sun by the soothing comfort of his imported car as well as the loving care of Rajathi Ammal, his third wife who accompanies him for all election campaigns. The scene of Rajathi Ammal rubbing his bald pate during a campaign meeting itself is sufficient proof of the DMK patriarch’s failing health and fragile physique.
If the 2014 lok Sabha elections throw out a clear mandate, the next elections would take place only in 2019. “It is humanly impossible for a 96-year-old man to call the shots in the party as well as undertake the demanding job of addressing hundreds of meetings all over the State. Karunanidhi is no superman,” said a physician specialising in geriatrics.
The DMK patriarch had entrusted the responsibility of campaigning to MK Stalin, his heir apparent and had planned to appear only in three or four meetings. But Stalin’s failure to enthuse the cadre as well as the high-voltage campaign by Jayalalithaa made party managers to re-work and reschedule Karunanidhi’s plans to rest and recuperate.
The voice which excited thousands across the State for almost six decades has started quivering. The son has risen in the DMK but the party chief has taken the final bow in front of his fans and followers. If he campaigns for the 2016 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, it could turn out to be a miracle since till date no politicians has beaten time and tide.