The stage is set for the re-election of Muthuvel Karunanidhi (92) as the president of the DMK in the general council meeting of the party to be held on Friday at Chennai.
Dr Kalaignar (Tamil for the ultimate scholar in arts and literature) as he prefers to be addressed by everybody, has been holding the party president's post ever since CN Annadurai passed away in 1969. "It is a foregone conclusion. Kalaignar is the supreme leader of the DMK. He is our chief ministerial candidate for the 2016 Assembly election", Radhakrishnan, a member of the general council, the highest decision-making body of the DMK, told The Pioneer.
With his election as the party chief, Kalaignar, a school dropout who has been decorated with honorary PhDs by most of the universities in Tamil Nadu, becomes the longest-serving chief of a political outfit in the country. He has only one barrier to cross to equal or break the world record. When he will be elected again as the party chief in 2019, Kalaignar who will be 97 at that time, will equal the world record of the longest-serving president of a political party which stands in the name of Fidel Castro of Cuba. Castro headed the Cuban Communist Party for a record 50 years from 1961 to 2011.
Though Castro opted out of active politics at the age of 85 in 2011, Kalaignar is as active and vibrant as he was when he took over the party presidency in 1969. There is no opposition to Kalaignar who is described in the party's theme song as God Almighty of Tamils all over the world. MK Stalin, his second son by second wife Dayalu Ammal and the chosen heir, has ensured that there will not be any challenge of any kind to Kalaignar's re-election.
All district units of the party have been stuffed with loyalists of Stalin. MK Alagiri, elder son of Kalaignar and a former Union Minister, has been totally sidelined, initially by issuing a suspension order and finally by expelling him from the primary membership of the party to facilitate the coronation of Stalin, who too has managed to get a honorary PhD from Anna University during his tenure as deputy Chief Minister. Politicians in Tamil Nadu, especially in the Dravidian ones, are keen to have the prefix of either Doctor or Professor to their names. K Anbazhagan, 94, the DMK general secretary is addressed only as professor.
The interesting questions doing rounds is whether Anbazhagan would give way to Stalin. Sources close to Kalaignar said that the professor is not willing to leave his chair. "Stalin, our leader, will be elevated to a more important position," said Radhakrishnan. Sixty two-year-old Stalin is the DMK treasurer as well as the president of the party's youth wing. The 2016 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu is crucial for the DMK as well as Stalin. Another failure will see many second rung leaders leaving the party.
Hence, the father-son duo of Kalaignar and Stalin are on a mission to somehow cobble up a rainbow alliance similar to the one which they formed in the 2004 lok Sabha and the 2006 Assembly election. As the AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa stands disqualified from contesting election for the next ten years because of her conviction by a special court in Bangalore in the disproportionate wealth case. The Karnataka High Court is expected to hear the appeal filed by Jayalalithaa asking for quashing the lower court verdict.