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In private, questions are being raised about the wisdom of a 'dual-SIM' leadership during the long run-up to the 2026 assembly polls where 'family rule' could become an election issue, reports N Sathiya Moorthy.
If evidence is needed that Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister M K Stalin is ripening to be his father and DMK chieftain Muthuvel Karunanidhi's son in quick repartee, for which the late patriarch was among the best-known political leader in Tamil Nadu in his time, it became evident twice in as many weeks.
With this, party cadres say, Stalin has climbed one more peak that was believed to be unconquerable.
According to them, if Stalin has Karunanidhi's literary prowess, he is yet to display it.
The occasion for Stalin's repartee skills was centred on his minister-son Udhayanidhi Stalin, who is also the secretary of the DMK's youth wing.
Answering newsmen pointing to the increasing demand for elevating Udhayanidhi as deputy CM, Stalin said: 'The demand has grown but has not ripened.'
Post facto, newsmen and political analysts were left scratching their heads if the chief minister meant that the time was not ripe yet for making his son his deputy CM, or if he (also) meant that the latter would have to go some more way before being considered for the honour-cum-responsibility.
The second occasion arose more recently, when newsmen quizzed the chief minister about the imminent recasting of the state cabinet, comprising the replacement of three ministers and elevation of not one but two others as deputy CMs.
It was a multi-choice question when it came to drops and inductions.
For deputy chief minister, the names of Udhayanidhi, 46, and 86-year-old Water Resources Minister S Duraimurugan, who is also the general secretary of the DMK, came up.
Stalin quickly shut newsmen's mouths when asked if an official announcement could be expected by the evening.
'I have not received any such information,' he responded, as newsmen were either expecting him to shrug his shoulders or give a relatively long answer, again saying nothing.
Even if he had decided on the elevations and replacements, given the tense and tentative relations with Governor R N Ravi, Stalin would not have wanted to offend Raj Bhavan by going to town without taking its tenant into confidence in matters requiring protocol and precedence.
Udhayanidhi Stalin was not an original choice for a minister's post when the DMK-led alliance won the assembly elections in May 2021 and Stalin became chief minister.
He was inducted as the youth affairs and sports minister in December 2022 and came to oversee special programme implementation, poverty alleviation and rural indebtedness, if only to give him a taste of rural Tamil Nadu.
When inducted as minister in the fifth and last of Karunanidhi-led government of 2006, Stalin was put in charge of local administration, again with the same idea in mind.
Though he did not have to wait for long to be made deputy chief minister, especially after Karunanidhi's health began failing, Stalin was earlier the first directly-elected mayor of the prestigious Chennai municipal corporation for a full five year term, when the DMK was in power, 1996-2001.
It is another matter that Stalin had by then spent close to 35 years in direct politics, beginning with the DMK student and youth wings, so acceptance for his anointment, whenever Karunanidhi chose to do so, was a natural progression within the party hierarchy.
It is not as if Udhayanidhi is or will be facing any challenge in the matter.
If anything, Udhayanidhi does not have to counter any challenges that Stalin faced in his time -- first the perceived threats from his late cousin Murasoli Maran, who was considered to be the eyes, ears and at times the brain of maternal uncle Karunanidhi, mainly in national politics but occasionally in the state administration, whenever the party was in power.
Then you had elder brother M K Azhagiri, who was a late entrant to DMK politics but demanded and at times obtained preference in matters political.
Today, Azhagiri is out of the way, close to a decade-and-a-half after Karunanidhi disowned him in matters political, for working against DMK candidates in the failed assembly elections of 2011, a decade after a similar meddling by him in elections 2001.
His nephew Dayanidhi Maran, Murasoli Maran's son, did have his time with his grand-uncle but it was cut short rudely after he tried to get close to the high command of the Congress leaders of UPA-I, circumventing the established line of command.
After initial hiccups, Stalin's relations with half-sister Kanimozhi Karunanidhi have also vastly improved. There are no more any rumours about the two falling apart.
The same applies to the Kanimozhi-Udhayanidhi equation.
Shorn of details, in their time, Kanimozhi could become the face of the party in Delhi, which role she has been playing subtly on occasions, without stepping on the foot of party veteran T R Baalu.
It will be left to Udhaya to run the show in the state.
Indications are that Stalin would want Udhayanidhi, as son, minister and party leader, to gain greater experience and exposure, and with that the required command and confidence without any coterie leading him by the nose.
Certainly, neither would want the party's current electoral high to suffer owing to wrong moves on the part of one, and wrong decisions and directions by the other.
This apart, it has been customary in the DMK for youth wing leaders to be inducted into the parent party before being conferred greater responsibilities, especially in a party-led government.
Of course, there are not too many precedents, but that's how Stalin's induction as deputy chief minister happened.
Hence, there are those who indicate that Udhayanidhi should be made an office-bearer in the parent party before being conferred with greater administrative responsibilities as deputy chief minister.
In private questions are being raised about the wisdom of a 'dual-SIM' leadership during the long run-up to the 2026 assembly polls, where the forgotten 'family rule' could become an election issue, alongside the inevitability of traditional anti-incumbency factors.
Others beg to differ. They see in such an approach the emergence of the required space for the leadership to replace the old and worn-out leaders at all levels with the younger generation, who feel choked and stymied in every district.
A suggestion has been made for restructuring the party with two assembly segments for every 'DMK organisation district' with more office-bearers at different levels.
This is expected to deflect power away from the oldies who refuse to make way and whom Stalin has a problem replacing, owing to long association and personal sentiments going with it.
For instance, all talk of a ministerial and organisational shake-up in the DMK ended after the party-led alliance swept the Lok Sabha polls this year.
For whatever remains, superstar Rajinikanth, a special invitee to a DMK party event for the release of a book on Karunanidhi in the latter's centenary year, congratulated Stalin and Udhayanidhi, and said how oldies were blocking the growth prospects of the youth.
Hurt and agitated, octogenarian Duraimurugan, known for his own kind of repartee, hit back, telling newsmen how old actors who had even lost their teeth were still blocking the way for the younger generation in filmdom.
Of course, it was a reference to Rajinikanth, who is past 73, and it did not go down well even with DMK front-benchers.
Stalin reportedly ticked off the veteran colleague for shooting off his mouth, possibly also because the superstar was endorsing the party and leadership for the first time, almost wholeheartedly after such attestation in the mid-nineties.
According to reports, Duraimurugan called up Rajinikanth, and both patched up on the phone, as indicated by Stalin.
Subsequently, both Rajini and Duraimurugan, when accosted by newsmen separately, claimed that the other was an 'old friend' and there was nothing amiss between them.
When sought to be cornered likewise, Stalin told newsmen that he had nothing to say after what the other two had said about their friendship for long.
The reasons are not far to seek. The rumour about ministerial shake-up came up on the day actor-politician Vijay launched the flag and theme-song for his party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), as if someone wanted to deflect popular attention from the event.
However, Stalin's quick end to the rumour did them no good.
It is another matter, the TVK flag has landed in multiple controversies, about the use of the red-and-yellow colour scheme, which BJP leaders in the state identified as 'auspicious' (in religious terms).
The use of two elephants standing on hind legs and facing each other with their trunks in salutation-mode is said to be an adaptation from the neighbouring Kerala government's official logo.
According to some, even the theme song sounds more like an A R Rahman-scorer from Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan franchise, and lacks the heft to inspire party cadres and others like.
The comparison is with Vetriyei Naalai Charithiram Sollum, the title song of MGR's magnum opus, Ulagam Surtrum Vaaliban (1973), the promotional song for the AIADMK that he had launched months earlier, after breaking away from the parent DMK.
The stentorian voice of the late Seerkazhi Govindarajan is irreplaceable.
All of it goes on to show that Vijay and TVK could do with a better group of advisors with vast and varied political experience, if their dreams have to come true.
If nothing else, they should not get caught in court cases and avoidable political controversies that could 'expose' the lack of talent at the top rungs, after a time.
Stalin has since left for the US for a fortnight, mainly to attract FDI to the state during his two-week-long tour; he had similarly visited Spain some months ago.
According to media reports, he is also likely to have medical consultations for a nagging nerve-related problem that is said to be an irritant, and nothing more.
With this, all talk of cabinet and party reshuffle has been put off, but will be revived once he returns.
In the meantime, party men are left to discuss and debate the wisdom of creating more 'DMK districts', if only to accommodate aspiring second and third-line leaders, in time to serve Udhayanidhi when he moves up the ladder.
It's like how Karunanidhi created operational space for Stalin since the 1970s.
Almost everyone if the present-day top rung leaders in the party was identified for Stalin by Karunanidhi, and they have stuck and refuse to leave.
However, there are those who caution how such a course could only create more centres of power at lower levels than already, making the party look more corrupt and lawless than it actually might be.
As they point out, the Stalin leadership, for a variety of reasons, has been unable to, or unwilling to, quell dissidence in the party-held mayoralty of three municipal corporations.
And as the saying goes, the party could then end up becoming an 'army of generals with fewer footmen' -- each one ordering about the other, and each one challenging the other.
They all understand that the DMK is not cut out as an organisation to risk it.
As they point out, unlike the rival AIADMK under MGR first and Jayalalithaa later, neither Karunanidhi, nor Stalin, has been known to be as tough with indiscipline at lower levels as with squaring off challengers, one way or the other.
N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and author, is a Chennai-based policy analyst and political commentator.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com