CHENNAI: MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin, the ruling DMK’s youth wing secretary, on Wednesday assumed the office of minister for youth welfare and sports development with an assertion that he would answer criticism of ‘family politics’ through his work and would make Tamil Nadu the sports capital of India.
The Stalin scion, touted to be the next in line for the party’s throne, opened his ministerial innings with three key announcements and said he will start work for establishing mini stadiums in all 234 assembly constituencies in the state.
Questioned about the criticisms being levelled against him over his elevation as minister, Udhayanidhi Stalin, at the Raj Bhavan, said, “Definitely there will be criticisms. I can respond to them only through my actions. Similar criticisms were made when I was made DMK’s youth wing secretary and MLA.”
He also declared that Mamannan, directed by Mari Selvaraj, would be his last film, and he had dropped his plan to act in a film to be produced by Kamal Haasan.
Later, in a statement, the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni MLA recalled his political journey as the secretary of the DMK’s youth wing in July 2019 and his active participation in demonstrations organised by the party in support of various people’s demands and training programmes on Dravidian model governance. He also recalled his contribution in enrolling 25 lakh new members to the party’s youth wing and appointment of 3.5 lakh office-bearers to the unit.
‘Will try to live up to expectations’
“Now, the CM has allowed me to serve as a minister. I will try to excel in this task too. In my responsibility as a minister, I will try to win people’s hearts and live up to the expectations of everyone,” he said. Earlier, Udhayanidhi was sworn in as a minister at a simple function at the Raj Bhavan.
Governor RN Ravi administered him the oath of office and secrecy at 9.35am and the entire ceremony was over in nine minutes. After taking the oath, Udhayanidhi presented a bouquet to the governor and later touched his father MK Stalin’s feet seeking his blessings.
On the first day in office, Udhayanidhi signed three key files—allocating Rs 47.04 crore for conducting 16 sport competitions for CM’s trophy, granting monthly lifetime financial assistance of Rs 6,000 each to nine indigent sportspersons, and Rs 4 lakh cash award to Nivethitha of Coimbatore for winning silver medal in shooting competitions in Peru recently.
After the swearing-in, Udhayanidhi drove to the memorials of his grandfather M Karunanidhi and former chief minister CN Annadurai on the Marina and paid his respects. He also visited Periyar Thidal, where he was greeted by DK president K Veeramani, and the Gopalapuram residence of Karunanidhi. Though it is curtains down for actor Udhayanidhi, there is no clarity yet on his role in Red Giant Movies, the film production and distribution house founded by him.
A source said an official announcement would be made soon. Notably, Udhayanidhi’s name has been removed from the posters of Sembi, a new film distributed by the company. After the DMK came back to power, most big-ticket films, including Vikram, Beast, Cobra, Thiruchitrambalam and the upcoming Thunivu, were distributed by Red Giant Movies.
Though concerns were raised about the company monopolising the distribution, most stakeholders vouched for the company’s fairness. “Their administrative setup is perfect. They get great deals from theatres and make sure that the share is passed over to the producers even when theatres delay sharing their revenue,” says producer and distributor T Siva. Top producer and distributor KE Gnanavel Raja agrees. “Kangaroo courts were armtwisting film producers and the business functioned like a mafia but now producers are happy,” he says.
HIS JOURNEY SO FAR
Stalin scion can dabble with multiple depts
Udhayanidhi Stalin got his portfolios of special programme implementation from MK Stalin, youth welfare and sports development from Siva V Meyyanathan, and poverty alleviation and rural indebtedness from KR Periyakaruppan. While finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan got the statistics portfolio that may help him in achieving data-driven governance, HR&CE Minister PK Sekar Babu got the plum CMDA portfolio