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Stalin re-elected as DMK president, sets his eyes on 2024 Lok Sabha polls
In his address following the election, Stalin asked office-bearers to take a vow to work towards securing a landslide victory for the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha (LS) polls and emerge in national politics as an unassailable force.
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin was unanimously re-elected as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president for a second consecutive term at the party’s general council meeting in Chennai on Sunday.
In his address following the election, Stalin asked office-bearers to take a vow to work towards securing a landslide victory for the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha (LS) polls and emerge in national politics as an unassailable force.
“We cannot be complacent because we won the assembly elections, and we are governing now...I don’t doubt that DMK will continue to govern Tamil Nadu. People’s trust in us has increased after we began governing. This is what scares me. The faith they have in me and our party, and I’m concerned in keeping that up.”
Stalin further said that the BJP would “stoop down to any level to win the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections”, and alleged that the national party was invoking religion for politics.
“Because people don’t mix politics and religion here, the BJP is breathless in Tamil Nadu,” Stalin said during his 20-minute acceptance speech.
BJP was also taking advantage of a “leaderless” AIADMK, which had been split into four factions after J Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, Stalin added. “Since the BJP has no achievements to show and the AIADMK is in disarray, they will spread lies during elections and try to shame us. The only response to their blame will be our achievements.”
By exhorting party cadres to work towards winning all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Stalin asked them to start working on booth committees from now on and complete them in the next two months.
He also asked his ministers and party leaders to be careful while making public speeches as the behaviour of some is giving him “sleepless nights”.
This comes after higher education minister K Ponmudi’s remarksin the context of the free bus travel scheme, which has not gone down well with a section of women commuters and others in the state.
Ponmudi made a remark during a function last month saying that women can travel “OC” which in Tamil slang means free which has not gone down well with a section of travellers.
In September, A Raja’s speech, in which he said, “As long as you’re a Hindu, you’re a shudra”, also received backlash.
“On the one hand, I’m the leader of the DMK, on the other, I’m the chief minister of Tamil Nadu,” he said, questioning what he could say when some of his party leaders put him in an embarrassing situation.
“I open my eyes in the morning, hoping that no one should have created any problems. This also makes me sleepless sometimes,” Stalin said. “Except for our bedroom and washroom, everything else is a public space today. There is nothing called a private space. There is a third eye called a cell phone now. Every movement is being monitored. The words we use are important. They can either bring you laurels or kill you. We need to be very cautious while we speak. Explaining ourselves will take time, so how will we serve people?”
This will be Stalin’s second consecutive tenure as DMK president. Stalin took over as the DMK president on August 28, 2018, following the death of his father and the incumbent Karunanidhi on August 7.
Since then, the DMK has had successive electoral victories in the 2019 assembly elections and 2021 assembly elections, which brought the party back to power in Tamil Nadu after a decade and the local body elections last year and this year. DMK has been conducting intra-party elections for various posts, and the process concluded at the end of September.
On Sunday, senior leaders Durai Murugan and TR Baalu were elected as general secretary and treasurer, respectively. Kanimozhi Karunanidhi has been elevated as deputy general secretary from her post as the head of the DMK’s women’s wing, an official statement from the party stated.
BJP Tamil Nadu’s state secretary SG Suryah countered by critiquing the DMK’s “dynastic politics”.
“Why this joke of conducting elections and creating a mockery,” he said observing that after Karunanidhi, Stalin is the party president and it will go to Udhaynidhi Stalin next.
