DMK’s woman face, Kanimozhi, gets elevation in party

Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) woman face, was on Sunday appointed as one of the five deputy general secretaries by newly elected party president and her half-brother, M K Stalin.

Though the new post, on the face of it, is certainly an elevation to the Lok Sabha MP from Thoothukudi, it is to be seen whether Stalin will allow her to continue to hold the post of secretary of the women’s wing of DMK which is more influential than being a deputy general secretary.

If Kanimozhi is asked to part with her women’s wing position, political observers said, it will only be viewed as “clipping her wings” as Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi will continue to be secretary of the youth wing.

While announcing her new appointment, Stalin described Kanimozhi as the “thunderous voice of Delhi” after which she came onto the dais amid a rapturous welcome by the General Council members. Besides Kanimozhi, Stalin, and Udhayanidhi are two other family members who hold party posts.

In her acceptance speech, Kanimozhi, also the party’s face in New Delhi, heaped praises on Stalin saying she saw her father late M Karunanidhi in her half-brother. “I will march along with you in all your struggles,” Kanimozhi told Stalin, pledging her loyalty to the DMK President yet again, even as she stressed on the word ‘brother’ multiple times while referring to Stalin.

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The appointment of Kanimozhi as one of the deputy general secretaries comes close on the heels of her being named as the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.

Senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh said in addition to this new appointment, Kanimozhi should be allowed to keep her position in the DMK women’s wing as she is capable of winning over a significant chunk of the women voters from the rival AIADMK, which has always taken pride in having a huge women following due to the magic of MGR and Jayalalithaa.

“Now with the AIADMK literally in tatters, the women brigade in that party has become an easy harvest for the DMK. With her Tamil oratory skills and the personal charisma as the daughter of Karunanidhi, Kanimozhi would be the right person in the DMK to increase its women vote-bank at the cost of the AIADMK. DMK has always been deficient in the women's votes and Kanimozhi can change that trend,” Singh added.

Kanimozhi is one of the senior leaders of the DMK having taken a plunge into politics in 2007 by entering the Rajya Sabha. She was soon made the secretary of the DMK’s women’s wing and re-elected to Rajya Sabha in 2013. In 2019, she entered Lok Sabha for the first time from Thoothukudi.

Though Stalin and Kanimozhi did not share best of relations for a long time, Karunanidhi’s death in 2018 changed things as the DMK President began to accommodate his half-sister and give her prominence in national politics.

Stalin also stepped into avert a crisis in 2021 when his son Udhayanidhi decided to enroll women into the youth wing he heads, a move that was red-flagged by Kanimozhi. Eventually, Udhayanidhi was asked not to go ahead with his plans.