Tamil Nadu CM Stalin hints at Udhayanidhi's elevation

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday dropped ample hints that he has decided to elevate his son and Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin as his deputy in the three-and-a-half-year-old DMK dispensation.

“There will not be any disappointment. There will be change,” Stalin told reporters to their pointed question on the demand to appoint Udhay as the deputy chief minister and the speculation on the impending cabinet reshuffle.

.Adulterated ghee not used to make Tirupati Laddu as TTD returned Tankers from Tamil Nadu Dairy. Stalin’s Tuesday response is the most definitive answer from him on queries regarding Udhay’s promotion, which have been doing the rounds for the last couple of months. In August, Stalin had merely said, “the demand has grown stronger, but it is yet to ripe,” to a question whether he would consider demands to anoint his son as the deputy chief minister.

Before leaving for the US on August 27, the Chief Minister had indicated about a cabinet reshuffle after his return. “Change is the only constant thing. Wait and see,” Stalin told reporters then.

Sources in the DMK told DH that the Chief Minister’s remarks should be viewed as his public admission of his decision to elevate his son as his deputy in the government.

“While he has communicated to the people and to party seniors that he has decided in his son’s favour, he has also indicated he is yet to fix the date. The announcement is likely to be made very soon,” a senior DMK leader told DH .

The leader said the decision was conveyed to top leaders in July but Stalin waited for about two months to “test the waters.” “There is no visible opposition to Udhay’s elevation. Moreover, several ministers, including veteran partymen, have come out in the open in the last few weeks to support Udhayanidhi. This has made things easy for him,” he added.

Another leader said the cabinet reshuffle is being delayed as the leadership wants to induct jailed leader V Senthil Balaji as a minister once again. “The delay in the release of Balaji is also one of the reasons for the delay in the Cabinet reshuffle. But that has nothing to do with Udhay’s elevation, which is a different issue,” the second leader added.

“Notwithstanding the impending promotion, Udhay is virtually the no. 2 in the DMK government as he steps in to inaugurate programs and launch schemes of various departments whenever his father is not able to do so due to his health. He is also the most sought after minister to inaugurate schemes in their departments.

Udhay’s rise in the DMK has been meteoric even for a member of the first family and is in complete contrast with his father Stalin, who climbed the party ladder gradually over the decades. Udhay’s first political outing was in 2018, a year after his grandfather M Karunanidhi was confined to his home, and the next year he was appointed as secretary of the youth wing.

In 2021, Udhay contested the assembly elections from Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni, a constituency in Chennai represented by his grandfather, and won by a massive margin. And in 2022, he was a minister in his father’s 1.5 years old government.

In contrast, Stalin, who was groomed by Karunanidhi to succeed him, had to wait for at least 15 years to join his father’s cabinet. Stalin was inducted as a minister only in 2006, in his fourth term as a legislator and patiently waited for Karunanidhi to hand over the reins to him.

Tamil Nadu CM Stalin hints at Udhayanidhi's elevation

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