Dynast politics aside,DMK must uplift grassroots cadre

The DMK ends 2022 in a fairly strong political position in Tamil Nadu. With the principal opposition party, the AIADMK, still in disarray, the BJP yet to prove a serious challenger, and no major controversies having erupted over its year and a half in government, the DMK recently made use of the opportunity to elevate party scion Udhayanidhi Stalin to a ministerial role. Charges of a dynastic rule are hardly new to the Dravidian major.

Late leader M Karunanidhi was a stalwart of the Dravidian movement that altered the state’s trajectory, arguably for the better, and his legacy casts a large shadow. But for all his achievements, critics saw his family as his Achilles’ heel. Even then, his son, current party chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin had no easy road to the top. By the time he became a minister in the 2006–11 DMK government, he had already won his MLA seat four times, and been twice elected (directly) Mayor of the Chennai Corporation.

Udhayanidhi has had a much easier journey. The actor-producer/distributor entered active politics in 2018. By the following year, he was made head of the DMK’s youth wing. In 2021, he was elected MLA and this year, after completing his film assignments, he became a member of his father’s cabinet. His dizzying rise is, of course, a product of dynastic politics in a party with several second and third-generation leaders. In an ideology-based party like the DMK, children of leaders and cadres entering politics is probably inevitable.

The true test for the party is in the calibre of these younger leaders and whether their rise comes at the cost of other talented, committed party faithful. Stalin, for one, has proved himself as a broadly capable administrator, as have some other ‘dynasts’ such as finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan and industries minister Thangam Thennarasu. Udhayanidhi’s behind-the-scenes Kollywood career suggests potential as an administrator. However, the party and its leadership must guard against the kind of sycophancy that has wrecked its ally, the Congress, and continue to nurture and elevate grassroots cadre, who are the backbone of the DMK.