From the looks of it, this set of posters betrayed signs of a major shift in Tamil Nadu's political landscape — one whose contours are typified by huge billboards that crop up all of a sudden along the roads of its capital. But, even for the cynical Chennaiite, its details were flummoxing this time. Surely, they don’t feature any of the usual suspects who get glorified periodically through words and pictures. So, who exactly are these new faces looking down at pedestrians and motorists on a short stretch of Ethiraj Road, starting from arterial Anna Salai?
Well, the protagonists in the posters, seen being welcomed to a wedding, are family members of M K Azhagiri, a son of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. Besides Azhagiri, the posters feature his wife Kanti, son Durai Dayanidhi and daughter Kayalvizhi.
Not many in Chennai recognised them since the family’s capital city lies down south, in Madurai, where Azhagiri is the uncrowned modern-day monarch. So their invasion of poster space on Chennai roads sparked speculations over a possible shifting of base or rather a broadening of turf. If so, will it not trigger a bout of sibling rivalry within the larger First Family of Tamil Nadu?
Curious questions like this are being asked regularly. For, of late, ‘palace watching’ has caught up in the state — not as a pastime but as a compulsion — to understand the state’s politics. For everything, yes everything, it is said, revolves around the various members of the complex family, of which 84-year-old Karunanidhi is the patriarch.
However, not many are familiar with the private life of each of its members despite the emerging political scenario making it imperative to know such details. In any case, most of them make an impact in the public domain — directly or indirectly.
As for Azhagiri, Chennai had become his second home even before the posters propped up in the state capital. Ditto, for his sister Selvi, who shuttles regularly between Bangalore and Chennai. Selvi, married to ‘Murasoli’ Selvam, a first cousin, unlike Azhagiri, maintains a low profile, politically. She has a daughter, Ezhilarasi, who lives in Chennai with her doctor husband, Jothimani.
Elder to Azhagiri and Selvi is M K Muthu, the only son of Karunanidhi's first wife late Padmavathy. He started off as an actor, donning hero’s role in 1970s films but over the years turned out to be a prodigal son of the patriarch. Muthu courted controversy by once joining rival AIADMK, then leaving his wife Sivakami Sundari and family in Chennai, and later leading a penury-ridden life in a small hut in a village.
Muthu is now back in Chennai — with his son Arivunidhi, a doctor by profession and a playback singer by passion. In fact, Arivunidhi has inherited the talent from his father Muthu, who, after being rehabilitated, recorded a song for a film. And, that, in a single take. In his hey day as an actor, there was talk that Muthu had been brought into the field to displace MGR. Those days he used to be a resident of Chennai’s Gopalapuram area.
It was in Gopalapuram, where Karunanidhi has been living with his second wife Dayalu Ammal that her children, Azhagiri, Selvi, Stalin and Tamilarasu grew up.
For the last quarter century, though, Azhagiri has been packed off
to Madurai. And Selvi, of late, has been based in Bangalore. Stalin and Tamilarasu continue to live in Chennai.
Azhagiri left the city ostensibly to take care of the Madurai edition of Murasoli, the DMK’s official newspaper, which was started by Karunanidhi and later edited by (the late) ‘Murasoli’ Maran. Both Maran and Selvam are sons of Karunanidhi’s sister. He has another sister, Shanmugathammal, whose son is Amirtham.
Coming to Azhagiri, some party functionaries remember seeing him riding an old Lambretta scooter when he landed in Madurai. He was those days leading a spartan life in a rented house. Now, he is brimming with several business interests, besides properties in various places like Kodaikanal. It is said ‘nothing moves without his consent’ in Azhagiri’s turf.
Azhagiri has three children: Kayalvizhi, married to Venkatesan, Anjugaselvi and
Durai Dayanidhi. All of them live in Chennai. Both Kayalvizhi and Durai have political aspirations. Kayalvizhi’s initiation into politics was at a recent conference of the party’s women’s wing in Cuddalore recently, when she made a speech with papa watching her performance from the crowds.
Durai, a regular at top city pubs, can be spotted at hot spots. He was a student of Anna University.
Karunanidhi’s next son, Stalin, is perhaps the most well known face among the progeny of the chief minister. As one who grew up with the party, Stalin has been the DMK’s youth wing chief and continues to hold the post even after having become a grandfather. In the DMK, he also holds the post of deputy general secretary and in government he is a minister. He had earlier been the mayor of Chennai, too.
His wife is Durgadevi, a native of Thiruvenkadu. Their son Udhayanidhi, married to Krithika, earlier owned a bowling alley. Now, Udhayanidhi is into filmmaking. Kuruvi, starring Vijay, was his production. Wife Krithika runs an upmarket magazine Inbox1305 . They have a son, Inbanidhi. Udhayanidhi is said to own a Hummer, a fuel guzzling SUV, and is part of the Page 3 circle in the city.
Stalin’s daughter Senthamarai is married to Sabareesan. She was in America for some time but is now back in Chennai. From Gopalapuram, Stalin first moved into a mansion in Velachery, which is now a playschool. Currently, he stays in Cenotaph Road, and Udhayanidhi is said to be with him.
Tamilarasu, the other son of Karunanidhi, keeps a low profile. Having married Mohana, daughter of P S Veera-ppa, he was living with his
father but has now moved to a new house. The couple has a daughter Poonguzhali and son Inbanidhi. Tamilarasu runs a few shops in the city and is into some other businesses, too.
Kanimozhi, the youngest daughter of Karunanidhi, lives in CIT Nagar residence, in a modern house said to have been built according to Vastu Shastra.
An accomplished poet and a one-time journalist, Kanimozhi is married to Aravindan of Singapore. They have a son, Aditya. Kanimozhi’s mother Rajathi Ammal lives in the same house and it is now Karunanidhi’s favoured rendezvous for important people Dayanidhi Maran gave his resignation there and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee called on him there.
Kanimozhi, besides being a Rajya Sabha member, is into a lot of social and cultural activities. She played a key role in the
organisation of the Chennai Sangamam and also a marathon in the city recently.
Kanimozhi visits the Secretariat often and is also said to be influencing a lot of decisions taken by her father. She is always around to help out papa when dignitaries call on him. However, she is very accessible to journalists and her old friends and can be spotted in places frequented by the common people.
No real inheritor to the mantle
though M Karunanidhi’s is a life dedicated to politics, he has been a man of many parts. Theatre, cinema and literature are his other passions. As a poet, he has been prolific and has used verse effectively in putting down political opponents. But none of his children or grandchildren has inherited his talents — both political or otherwise — perhaps with an exception of Kanimozhi.
In fact, Kanimozhi, now an MP, was the first woman in the family to have forayed into public life. Despite Karunanidhi's progressive views and liberal outlook, no other woman has shown any political, cultural or literary ambitions prior to her first making a mark in the state’s cultural and literary scene.
Kanimozhi remained more or less outside politics until she was nominated for the Rajya Sabha seat. Since then, she has been active in politics. But the rest of the women in the family continued to be in the shadows of their husbands —until the latest entry from the distaff side into politics, Kayalvizhi, daughter of M K Azhagiri, made her maiden appearance at Cuddalore. Her launch at the women’s conclave of the DMK did raise many eyebrows. That was because that event, the first of its kind, was touted to showcase Kanimozhi as a leading light of the party and as one of the vanguard of the women’s wing. So Kayalvizhi, despite her not-so-impressive speech, was taken note of at the show for she was seen as a possible threat to Kanimozhi having a free passage to higher echelons in the party.
Otherwise, the family members would seat themselves among the audience at party conferences. Only M K Stalin, as a senior party functionary, would be on stage. Things started changing slowly with Kanimozhi, too, going up on stage and then Azhagiri too getting a place of honour. In Karunanidhi’s initial days in politics, he just had his nephew ‘Murasoli’ Maran with him from the family as an associate in the party.
Maran, however, grew in the party and politics alongside Karunanidhi, and his success cannot be attributed to the leader’s support.
Then, after the Emergency, his second son Stalin made his entry into politics after spending time in jail. He, too, grew in the party ranks, though his sudden elevation in later years can be attributed to the fact that he happens to be Karunanidhi’s son.
But Kanimozhi and Kayal-vizhi had their ascension into the political platform only because of their respective fathers. Perhaps Azhagiri, having missed the political bus, feels that his daughter need to groomed for bigger things in politics. Does Karunanidhi also want to prepare Kanimozhi for a better future?
Whoever is triumphant, one thing is clear. None can’t match the talents of the patriarch, if one were to go by the proven abilities of all the political aspirants within the family.
babujayakumar@epmltd.com