E-Paper
Udhayanidhi takes over sports and youth welfare ministries
Udhayanidhi, a debutant MLA and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)’s youth wing secretary, took his oath of office administered by Governor R N Ravi in the Raj Bhavan
In a state where its chief ministers have comfortably straddled cinema and politics before making a complete switch to the latter, Udhayanidhi Stalin is the latest to follow this precedent announcing his last movie as an actor shortly after he was sworn in as a minister on Wednesday.
At 9.30 am on Wednesday, Udhayanidhi, a debutant MLA and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)’s youth wing secretary, took his oath of office administered by Governor R N Ravi in the Raj Bhavan in a simple ten minute ceremony.
Chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin’s oldest son Udhayanidhi, dressed in his trademark blue jeans and untucked white shirt bearing the symbol of the DMK’s youth wing, is now the Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development in the Tamil Nadu government. It sets the stage for the future of the party.
There has been no apparent opposition within the DMK to Udhayanidhi’s rapid elevation. His older estranged brother M K Alagiri is not in the picture. Their half-sister and Lok Sabha Kanimozhi Karunanidhi has recently been elevated as one of the four deputy secretaries of the DMK and her work is cut out as the party’s face in Delhi and the main draw for women. But Udhayanidhi’s elevation has given more ammunition for Tamil Nadu’s Opposition parties to up the ante on criticising the party for its dynastic politics.
“It’s not new to me,” Udhayanidhi told reporters of the AIADMK’s attack on him.
“Even when I took charge as DMK’s youth wing secretary, there was such criticism. I cannot avoid it. The only way I can respond to that criticism is through my work.”
The 46-year-old has been allotted the portfolios of Youth Welfare, Sports Development, Special Programme Implementation Department and Poverty Alleviation Programme and Rural Indebtedness.
The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday also changed the portfolios of 10 other ministers. Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan additionally got statistics to his existing portfolios.
“I want to work towards transforming Tamil Nadu into a sports capital,” Udhayanidhi said. His first task, he said, is to create a mini stadium in each of the states’ constituencies, promised in the DMK’s election manifesto last year before they swept the 2021 assembly elections. It was the first election he contested and was victorious from the family’s borough of the Chepauk-Tiruvellikeni constituency in Chennai held by his grandfather and former chief minister late M Karunanidhi.
The DMK’s scion’s journey has been in stark contrast with his father Stalin who was in his father Karunanidhi’s shadows for decades. Udhayanidhi was made youth wing secretary in July 2019 — a post Stalin held for more than three decades till 2017.
Stalin was 13 when he began organising youth wing activities and formed the DMK youth wing in 1980. He worked his way up to become party treasurer, Chennai mayor, deputy chief minister and leader of the Opposition. Karunanidhi had brought on Stalin in his cabinet in the period of 2006-2011 when he was already a four-time legislator. Stalin became party president after Karunanidhi’s death in August 2018 and chief minister in May 2021, at the age of 68.
In contrast, Udhayanidhi entered politics only in 2019, campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in which the DMK-led alliance won 38 out of 39 seats and the subsequent 2021 elections when they formed the government. “He has worked really hard during this time and he will be given more responsibilities in the future. I have confidence that he is capable of handling both politics and cinema,” said higher education minister K Ponmudi.
Udhayanidhi has been a successful producer and distributor and has acted in several films as well. On Wednesday, after taking charge as a minister he said that his last film would be Maamannan with director Mari Selvaraj. “I was supposed to act in a film produced by Kamal (Haasan) sir. But when I told him about this, he was the first person to congratulate me. I’m not doing that film. Maamannan is my last film,” said Udhayanidhi.
It’s a small, closed world of politicians and film industry stars in Tamil Nadu. Though Haasan floated a political outfit Makkal Needhi Maiam in 2018 against Dravidian parties, he continues to act in films. His latest blockbuster Vikram in June was produced by Udhaynidhi’s Red Giant Movies.
On Wednesday, Haasan congratulated his “younger brother” Udhayanidhi.
“I hope you will not think of it as a position but accept it as a responsibility and the experience of three generations will help you. There are expectations,” he tweeted.
Haasan’s contemporary in cinema and briefly in politics before he retracted, Rajinikanth tweeted, “My heartiest congratulations to my brother Udhaynidhi Stalin who has been sworn in as a minister of Tamil Nadu.”
AIADMK spokesperson D Jayakumar hit out at Stalin saying he had changed his stance on dynastic politics. “Senior ministers in the DMK are all upset that Udhayanidhi Stalin has come into the cabinet but they are not able to openly say so,” Jayakumar said.
“This will cause a lot of problems in their family as well as in the party.”
On Tuesday, leader of opposition and AIADMK’s interim general secretary Edapaddi K Palaniswami had said Udhayanidhi, as a minister, will be the “head of all corruption in the ruling DMK government”.
