CHENNAI: The elevation of Kanimozhi Karunanidhi as deputy general secretary of the DMK at its general council meeting here on Sunday elicited mixed response from political circles, especially from within the DMK.
It was soon after the resignation of former Union minister and veteran politician Subbulakshmi Jegadheesan from the post of deputy general secretary of the DMK that word started going around that Kanimozhi would be elevated to the post; it turned out to be true.
While some DMK cadre complained that this would further brand the party as a dynastic one, most believed this was a post Kanimozhi earned. She wrest the Thoothukudi parliamentary seat from the then-ruling AIADMK by bagging about 57% votes.
Moreover, she was the only woman leader of the party who campaigned across the State during the last Assembly and local body elections. Such was the cadre’s faith in her that she could get elected unanimously to any party post, they said. “The post was given to her for her dedication to the DMK, and it will be accepted by the entire party,” KK Rajendran, a ward-level functionary of the DMK from Ambattur in Chennai, told TNIE.
As for the one-person-one-post rule of the DMK, a few party functionaries said Chief Minister MK Stalin held the post of deputy general secretary for over five years between June 2003 and December 2008 while being the party’s youth-wing secretary.
Kanimozhi, too, would be allowed to serve as women’s wing secretary and as deputy general secretary. Since women voters outnumbered men in TN it was critical for the DMK to have an influential woman leader helming the women’s wing. As of now, only Kanimozhi made the cut, they said.
Veteran journalist and political observer T Koodalarasan said the opposition would surely level charges against her over dynastic politics and she would have to prove her mettle. “In politics, facing charges and countering them are inevitable.”
Her elevation has spawned debates within the party on whether she would be promoted like MK Stalin and whether she would continue to be the women’s wing secretary. The air is expected to be cleared once the DMK leadership announces who will lead party wings in the coming days.
Following her elevation, hundreds of DMK cadre visited Kanimozhi’s house and greeted her with shawls and books. CM MK Stalin, too, visited Kanimozhi’s house and paid tributes to former CM M Karunanidhi’s portrait there.
Former Tamil Nadu BJP unit president and incumbent Governor of Telangana Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, while congratulating Kanimozhi on her elevation, reportedly said many thought that it (Kanimozhi getting the post of deputy general secretary and Stalin getting elected as DMK president) would be a symbol of dynastic politics.