Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s 17-day trip to the US to attract investments to the state has temporarily quelled speculation about the appointment of his son, Udhayanidhi Stalin, as the deputy chief minister.
However, ThePrint has learnt that the internal strife involving senior and junior members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which surfaced right before the chief minister left for the US, is one of the reasons behind the postponement of Udhayanidhi’s elevation.
Stalin is currently in the US to discuss investment proposals with multinational companies and meet the Tamil diaspora. Before the CM left, Udhayanidhi made an appeal on 25 August to senior members of the party to make way for younger leaders.
“The youth are ready to join our party and are equipped to take up responsibility. But we have to hold their hands and guide them, and make way for them,” he said at an event organised by the party’s engineer wing as part of the year-long celebrations of the birth centenary of his grandfather, former chief minister M. Karunanidhi.
Signs of disgruntlement among party leaders came to light after actor Rajinikanth took a “friendly” jibe at senior DMK leader and minister Durai Murugan and older leaders at an event last week.
According to political commentator P. Sigamani, these are signs of a long-standing feud within the party. “There are a lot of seniors, who serve no purpose and are a burden to the party. The issue has been brewing for a long time, and has come out in a lighter way.”
Sources told ThePrint that Udhayanidhi’s elevation to the position of deputy chief minister was postponed due to a strife on these lines. “He was supposed to have been given the position long back. However, there are also expectations within the party that it may be shared. At one point of time, there were discussions to appoint three deputy CMs, including Udhayanidhi. But the idea was dropped,” a highly placed source in the DMK said.
ThePrint had reported previously how Udhayanidhi, as secretary of the youth wing, managed to successfully handle his first assignment of enlisting at least 10,000 supporters from each constituency on his own without much support from most senior ministers, back in 2019.
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Rumblings among ‘old-timers’
On 24 August, at the launch event of a book written by Tamil Nadu minister E.V. Velu, actor Rajinikanth lauded the chief minister for his handling of the “old-timers” in the party, who gave a tough time to Stalin’s father and former chief minister Karunanidhi.
“It is easy to handle the new students, but the challenge is to handle the old-timers. The old-timers here are not the failed students. They have all secured high ranks and are refusing to leave the school,” Rajinikanth said. He went on to mention Durai Murugan, saying that it used to be a big challenge for Karunanidhi to handle the leader.
Reacting to the comment the following day, the minister also took a dig at the actor, saying that older actors continue to be in limelight with “fallen teeth and grey hair”.
However, both of them later claimed that the “banter” was not “acrimonious”.
The source quoted above confirmed that the rift between the seniors and juniors has existed since Udhayanidhi’s appointment as youth wing secretary, and later as minister of youth welfare and sports development. “Though there was no visible opposition from the senior leaders, the resistance against Udhayanidhi was subtle,” the source said.
Referring to Rajinikanth’s remark the next day at the DMK engineer wing’s event, Udhayanidhi appealed to senior leaders to guide younger ones to take on more responsibility in the party.
DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi told ThePrint that Udhayanidhi’s comment was an invitation for younger people to join the party, and not a fight between the seniors and juniors. “We all work under Stalin’s leadership. We would accept whatever he says.”
Before Stalin for the US, when reporters asked him about a potential cabinet reshuffle after his return, he took a pause to say, “Change alone is constant. Wait and see.”
Stalin’s US trip
Stalin left for the US earlier this week and will return to Chennai on 12 September.
Before leaving, he told media persons that Tamil Nadu had received investment proposals, amounting to Rs 10,882 crore, through 17 memorandums of understanding (MoUs), which were signed during his previous foreign trips to UAE, Singapore, Japan and Spain.
“The investments could generate job opportunities for over 18,500 people in the state,” he said.
A total of 872 MoUs had been signed since DMK came to power in 2021, he said, with investment proposals worth Rs 9,99,093 crore, promising employment opportunities for about 18.89 lakh people.
However, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) spokesperson R.M. Babu Murugavel demanded the release of a white paper on the impact of the chief minister’s foreign trips. “Everything is available in the form of a statement. There are no reality checks on the number of investments brought through such trips,” he said.
However, Stalin clarified that releasing a white paper would lead to competition between states for investment. “It has not been the tradition and the investors would not encourage it because of the competition,” he said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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