DMK chief oldest ‘active’ neta at 95

M Karunanidhi, the DMK president and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, turned 95 on Sunday, becoming the oldest “active” politician in the country. The Dravidian patriarch has been the Chief Minister of the State for five terms since 1969. He is also the longest serving president of a political party in the country, having become the DMK chief in 1969. The truth is that he did not allow anyone to challenge his leadership all these years.

The year 2019 will see Karunanidhi completing 50 years as the DMK president, a feat which may never be accomplished by anyone in the near future. The only politician who has headed a political party for 50 years continuously was Fidel Castro who was the chief of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 to 2011. Castro gave up the post at the age of 85 but Dr Kalaignar (as Karunanidhi prefers to be addressed by everybody) is going strong. Though confined to a wheel chair and his speech slurred, the DMK founder-leader is not yet ready to give up his fight with time.

Besides becoming the Chief Minister of the State five times and deciding the fate of UPA Governments (2004 to 2013), the NDA Government (1999 to 2004) and the UF Government (1996 to 1998) at the Centre, Karunanidhi’s biggest achievement has been his success in eliminating all kinds of challenge to his leadership in the DMK. The charismatic MG Ramachandran, the orator par excellence Nedumchezhiyan, the eternal rebel Vaiko,fell by the wayside as Karunanidhi converted the Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam into a family owned enterprises, his friends and foes agree alike.

Now that he is waiting for his rendezvous with Annadurai, the founder leader of the DMK, Karunanidhi can relax because he has handed over the DMK to the hands of his son M K Stalin, Tamil Nadu’s eternal Chief Minister in waiting. Stalin, who established his hold in the party by easing out is elder brother M K Azhagiri from the party, is literally struggling to revive the DMK which has been beaten thrice by the AIADMK since 2011. Though Jayalalityhaa,  Karunanidhi’s lone “enemy” passed away in 2016,  the DMK or Karunanidhi are yet to taste a success in Tamil Nadu politics. Despite Stalin’s assertion that the Edappady Palaniswamy-led AIADMK Government would fall within weeks, Palaniswamy continues enjoying the chief ministership while Stalin has to eat his words time and again.

The birthday gift to Karunanidhi by Stalin was his announcement on Saturday that the DMK would return to the legislative Assembly session from Monday onwards. Stalin had led his DMK MLAs out of the House last Wednesday declaring that he would return only after the resignation of Palaniswamy as Chief Minister owning moral responsibility of the Thoothukudi riots that saw 13 persons getting killed in police firing.