Dumping allies in 2021 is too high a risk for Stalin to take in his maiden election as a chief ministerial candidate. The DMK without the guidance of Karunanidhi and led by him could either win it all or lose it all.
Chennai: Go big or go home is a philosophy that encourages one to be bold. This sales slogan that originated in the 1990s is used to encourage people to put all of one’s effort to experience something to its fullest. Canny political strategist Prashant Kishor had earlier in the year told DMK party president MK Stalin that the party should consider going it alone. A daring strategy, no doubt, but can DMK take this risky route?
A lot is at stake for Stalin’s DMK, which has been out of power for nearly 10 years now, which is why it is understandable that the DMK president is bound to exercise caution given that even the slightest miscalculation could turn the whole exercise into a misadventure of Shakespearean proportions. The wafer-thin one per cent margin that existed between Stalin’s party and the victorious AIADMK in 2016 would be another deterring factor that would discourage DMK to even remotely consider going it alone or lose even a single ally for next year’s elections. Added to that, the state’s political milieu is already teeming with formidable challenges from a new breed of politicians including superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. There are also fringe groups who seem to have been emboldened since the demise of the Dravidian party stalwarts such as Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa.
Dumping allies in 2021 is too high a risk for Stalin to take in his maiden election as a chief ministerial candidate. The DMK without the guidance of Karunanidhi and led by him could either win it all or lose it all. The DMK is more than keen to wrest back power from its arch-rival the AIADMK, as it has been the Opposition party for close to a decade. It may be recalled that the DMK was routed in the 2011 assembly polls when late Jayalalithaa had led the AIADMK to a big victory. A similar fate awaited it in 2016, where the DMK was defeated again. However, it had an opportunity to bounce back with a commendable performance during last year’s Lok Sabha elections. In the very first major election held in Tamil Nadu after the demise of Jayalalithaa in 2016 and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi in 2018, the DMK-led alliance, which also included the Congress, won 38 of the 39 Parliament seats in Tamil Nadu, besides Puducherry’s seat, leaving just one to the AIADMK.
On the other hand, with the tenuous political dynamics of Tamil Nadu, and the fact that Jayalalithaa took the solo route successfully way back in 2016, it could tempt DMK to take a long shot at creating a record of sorts as the single largest party to win all on its own. Nevertheless, in August this year, KS Alagiri, the president of Congress’ TN unit, said Stalin was the undisputed chief ministerial candidate of the DMK-Congress alliance in the 2021 state assembly polls. On Wednesday, Alagiri, accompanied by the AICC in-charge of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee invited Stalin to the plough rally, in the backdrop of meetings to discuss matters of alliance and the campaign ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls.
It’s yet another reminder that keeping friends close, but allies even closer may be the way to go for Stalin, come election time.
A lot is at stake for Stalin’s DMK, which has been out of power for nearly 10 years now, which is why it is understandable that the DMK president is bound to exercise caution given that even the slightest miscalculation could turn the whole exercise into a misadventure of Shakespearean proportions. The wafer-thin one per cent margin that existed between Stalin’s party and the victorious AIADMK in 2016 would be another deterring factor that would discourage DMK to even remotely consider going it alone or lose even a single ally for next year’s elections. Added to that, the state’s political milieu is already teeming with formidable challenges from a new breed of politicians including superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. There are also fringe groups who seem to have been emboldened since the demise of the Dravidian party stalwarts such as Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa.
Dumping allies in 2021 is too high a risk for Stalin to take in his maiden election as a chief ministerial candidate. The DMK without the guidance of Karunanidhi and led by him could either win it all or lose it all. The DMK is more than keen to wrest back power from its arch-rival the AIADMK, as it has been the Opposition party for close to a decade. It may be recalled that the DMK was routed in the 2011 assembly polls when late Jayalalithaa had led the AIADMK to a big victory. A similar fate awaited it in 2016, where the DMK was defeated again. However, it had an opportunity to bounce back with a commendable performance during last year’s Lok Sabha elections. In the very first major election held in Tamil Nadu after the demise of Jayalalithaa in 2016 and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi in 2018, the DMK-led alliance, which also included the Congress, won 38 of the 39 Parliament seats in Tamil Nadu, besides Puducherry’s seat, leaving just one to the AIADMK.
On the other hand, with the tenuous political dynamics of Tamil Nadu, and the fact that Jayalalithaa took the solo route successfully way back in 2016, it could tempt DMK to take a long shot at creating a record of sorts as the single largest party to win all on its own. Nevertheless, in August this year, KS Alagiri, the president of Congress’ TN unit, said Stalin was the undisputed chief ministerial candidate of the DMK-Congress alliance in the 2021 state assembly polls. On Wednesday, Alagiri, accompanied by the AICC in-charge of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee invited Stalin to the plough rally, in the backdrop of meetings to discuss matters of alliance and the campaign ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls.
It’s yet another reminder that keeping friends close, but allies even closer may be the way to go for Stalin, come election time.
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