Rift in DMK’s first family comes out in the open yet again

A political storm seems to be brewing in the DMK's first family, this time between two scions -- Kanimozhi and Udhayanidhi Stalin.

Udhayanidhi Stalin, Chief Minister M K Stalin’s son and MLA from Chepauk- Tiruvallikeni constituency in Chennai, kicked up a storm earlier this week by inducting women members into the party’s youth wing which he has been heading since July 2019.

Udhayanidhi’s action in Coimbatore where he was on a day-long visit as part of the DMK’s concerted plan to make inroads into western Tamil Nadu, a known AIADMK bastion, on December 26 irked Kanimozhi, who heads the women’s wing. The DMK MLA’s camp maintains there was “nothing wrong” in women being enrolled in the youth wing with a few leaders batting for “healthy competition” between the frontal organisations.

The move also came amid a clamour among a few ministers for Udhayanidhi’s induction into the Stalin cabinet. The first family is not new to differences within – Stalin and his elder brother M K Alagiri has had a running feud for years before the former trumped the latter.

Kanimozhi, Lok Sabha MP from Thoothukudi in southern Tamil Nadu, did not take his nephew’s move lying down – she put out a strong statement on her verified Twitter page underlining that party cadres should enrol women in the age group of 18-30 into the women’s wing.

The developments have led to visible friction between Kanimozhi and Udhayanidhi in the DMK, which formed its government in the state in May this year after a decade. Sources in the DMK told Deccan Herald that Kanimozhi was upset because this is the second time that the youth wing was trying to enrol women members despite strong objections from the womens’ wing.

“A few months after Udhayanidhi took over as secretary of the youth wing, he had proposed to launch a drive to enrol women into his frontal organisation. The project was shelved after our party president (Stalin) intervened at the request of Kanimozhi,” a senior DMK leader said.

In her statement, Kanimozhi invoked Stalin’s speech at a party meeting on December 18 in which he had exhorted leaders to bring more youngsters into the DMK to drive home her point that women should be enrolled to the women’s wing and not to the youth wing.

“Half of Tamil Nadu’s population is women and those between the age of 18 and 30 have the potential to shape the future. These women will play an integral role in the future of the DMK…Women of this age should be given space in politics,” Kanimozhi said and asked her wing functionaries to send a daily update on the enrolment.

Kanimozhi’s camp suspects that Udhayanidhi’s act is yet another move to sideline her within the DMK. After the issue came to the fore, it is understood that women enrolled on the youth wing will be added to the women’s wing as per “instructions from the top.”

However, political analysts feel this could just be the beginning of a cold war between Kanimozhi and Udhayanidhi.

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