CHENNAI: The DMK’s leadership has come up with a ‘three birds with one stone’ strategy, ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, that the party hopes will draw young voters while also strengthening Udhayanidhi Stalin’s foothold in politics.
The campaign is also aimed at countering the BJP’s planned Vel Yatra during which the national party hopes to consolidate votes on religious lines. Udhayanidhi, the party’s youth wing secretary, is the son of DMK president MK Stalin. His visibility has increased significantly since the death of his grandfather and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi in 2018. However, there remain some grumblings among senior party members over his growing influence even as his rise provides political opponents with an opportunity to wield the ‘dynastic politics’ charge.
“From day one of his appointment (as youth wing secretary) on July 4, 2019, a section of seniors have not welcomed his appointment and they have aired their displeasure at any chance. To convince them and to prove his mettle, Udhayanidhi has conducted various programmes,” a Chennai functionary said, listing some of his protests for the welfare of students and youth.
Aware that Udhay’s efforts have not quelled the criticism and that, unlike his father, he has not worked his way up the party ranks, the DMK leadership has decided to send him on a statewide campaign and tour to highlight the issues of young voters. In the 2016 Assembly polls, the DMK only polled 1.1 percent less votes than the victorious AIADMK. With the youth accounting for nearly 50 percent of voters in TN, the party hopes attracting them in large numbers will take the DMK over the finish line after 10 years out of power.
“The campaign will highlight job losses, unemployment, encroaching of North Indians in state and central government jobs and Hindi imposition which are the issues faced by the youngsters and job seekers,” said a DMK member from the Kongu region who is looped into the youth wing plans. The party hopes to promote Udhayanidhi as the main youth leader in the State.
“It would win us the support of more youths and first-time voters,” the member said. The campaign has shades of the Namakku Naame campaign on which Stalin, as youth wing secretary, embarked in 2015. Insiders claim the Statewide campaign helped the party improve its showing in the 2016 Assembly polls when it won 89 seats against just 23 in 2011.
Several youth wing and DMK cadres and functionaries drew a comparison with the 2015 campaign and described the planned tour as Namakku Naame 2.0. Youth wing sources said that, with the tour in mind, youth wing branches had already been established across the State even at the village-level.
The tour is expected to cover at least 100 municipalities and as many district headquarters as possible with a focus on the Kongu region, stronghold of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. “Udhayanidhi is firm that we must secure all the seats in the Kongu region in the Assembly,” a functionary from the region said.