Karunanidhi trying to ease son Stalin into government

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi appears to be clearing the decks for his politician son M K Stalin in his Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam administration, meanwhile letting him gain experience in powerful posts outside the government. Already many of Stalin's Youth Wing colleagues have got plum posts in the government.

Stalin is already the Youth Wing secretary and last year was elected mayor in the Madras City Corporation. To his credit, he was also instrumental in keeping up morale during the long AIADMK rule under the charismatic M G Ramachandran, when things looked bleak for the DMK.

Stalin, under the tutelage of his experienced father, then kept the party election machinery oiled so that it could make a comeback once MGR had gone.

Sources say Karunanidhi may use the upcoming DMK organisational elections to draw his son closer to the throne. Karunanidhi did not take the step last year, when forming his ministry, because it was then that his nephew Murasoli Maran was made a ministry in the United Front government at the Centre. If Stalin had joined the ministry then it would have raised the bogey of 'family rule'.

There are other stumbling blocks in the easy way of Stalin's induction, one being DMK General Secretary and Education Minister K Anbazhagan who has ruled the party along with Karunanidhi. A strong Dravidian party leader, Anbazhagan is one of the few leaders to stick to Karunanidhi in MGR's heyday.

Though seen as subservient, the septugenarian appears to be seeking an elevation. Other senior party posts, including that of the treasurer, now being held by controversial Electricity Minister 'Arcot' N Veeraswamy, are mostly ornamental.

Karunanidhi had foiled V Gopalswami who was preparing for a succession struggle with Stalin a few years ago. He made it appear that then Rajya Sabha member Gopalswami was fighting with him, which amounted to effrontery. Gopalswami didn't stand a chance.

Though Murasoli Maran could create trouble, he appears to be more interested in making a mark at the national level. The only other factor that could stymie Stalin is a DMK electoral defeat.