CHENNAI:Piloting the party back to power, containing the unstoppable sibling, keeping the flock of allies and friendly parties intact and continuing to tread on the path marked by the secular, Dravidian ideology... challenges seem galore for MK Stalin, the hitherto de facto chief of the DMK, who is going to formally take over the reins on Tuesday.
As the party is eagerly awaiting the day of his coronation, the road ahead appears to be not one of rose petals but of thorns, for he faces the daunting task of steering the party without the patriarch M Karunanidhi who single-handedly won elections ever since the demise of founder CN Annadurai, despite facing inclement weather more often.
The bitter experience of losing the 2016 polls to the AIADMK, which scripted history by winning consecutive polls after a long time, and the sore inability to capitalise on the vacuum created in Tamil Nadu politics following the death of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa will not fail to ring in the ears of the new president of DMK, the second in 50 years.
The real test of Stalin lies in building up a strong alliance to face the next Lok Sabha elections.“In the 2004 and 2009 polls, DMK was the backbone of the UPA. The main challenge before Stalin is to cobble up a similar mighty alliance for the next general elections,” says political analyst R Mani. He adds, “As of now, the DMK, Congress, the Left, MDMK and VCK appear to be a strong alliance.”Keeping intact the flock of current allies and friendly parties is a task cutout for Stalin despite signs of the BJP warming up to the Dravidian party.“But we have to wait how he (Stalin) is going to conduct himself,” Mani notes.
Another palpable danger he has to ward off is from his sibling MK Alagiri who is trying to take a combative posture by questioning his leadership qualities.But Stalin’s lieutenants are confident of dousing the embers of dissent in a strong manner. “Alagiri is an insignificant leader. We do not anticipate many problems from him. Our leader (Stalin) will be sailing smoothly,” said a top DMK leader close to Stalin.
An observer, who has long been keenly following the DM affairs, feels that Stalin can easily deal with Alagiri whose fight is not primarily political but for getting representation in the party-run trusts.