Tamil Nadu will see a star-studded electoral battle as and when the next election is held in the State. By Saturday, another leading star of Tamil films made it clear that he would be actively campaigning in the next election. The new entrant in the race is none other than Udhayanidhi Stalin who is also the son of DMK working president M K Stalin and grandson of party patriarch Muthuvel Karunanidhi.
This means the DMK will witness another “son rise “ in the Sun Rise party. (The DMK’s emblem is Rising Sun). Udhayanidhi was the lead attraction in the State-wide demonstration held by the DMK on Saturday against the recent bus fare hike announced by the AIADMK government.
Udhayanidhi had participated in a Pongal meeting organised by the South Chennai DMK recently and had spoken about topical political issues. His main thrust was to drive home the point that he was born into a DMK family and he was always a member of the party. Though he was not an active politician hitherto, Udhayanidhi used to campaign in the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu for his father and close relatives and associates.
The Pingal meeting saw Udhayanidhi ridiculing the junior pontiff of the Kanchi Mutt Vijayendra Saraswathi who did not stand up when the Tamil National Song was rendered during a recent function attended by Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
“ Since Stalin is not in the best of health, he has asked Udhayanidhi to campaign for the party and that is all. In all likelihood, Udhayanidhi would be the star campaigner and poster boy of the DMK in the future electons,’ said V Murugan, former IAS officer and a close associate of Karunanidhi.
Thuglaq Ramesh, a widely respected political commentator in Tamil Nadu, said that the move by the DMK seems to be a reaction to the decision of Rajinikanth and Kamal Haassan to launch their own political parties.