Udhayanidhi Stalin’s appointment as DMK’s youth wing state secretary, a post held by his father Stalin from his early days in politics, may not come as a total surprise to many. Sources from DMK confirm that the party will be making its formal announcement on Thursday via a release. According to reports, a function or meeting to mark the same is not in the offing.
Less than a month ago it was revealed based on sources from the party that close to 40 District Secretaries from the state have written to Arivalayam, expressing their support for Stalin's son. If appointed, Udhayanidhi would become the third youth wing secretary of the party.
The party, in the past too, has hinted that Udhayanidhi will be elevated to take up the youth wing state secretary post. DMK leader K Anbazhagan, a close confidante of Karunanidhi, had confidently said, "The reins of the Dravidian movement has always been in safe hands - from Periyar to Anna to Kalaignar and now to Stalin and in the future to his son."
The Youth wing secretary post is quite an important posting in DMK. According to senior journalist TN Gopalan, the post was created in 1985 with the sole purpose to make Stalin the Secretary and gradually bring him into the party's hierarchy. Stalin had stepped down as Secretary of the Youth Wing, a position he had held for 34 years until 2017. Former Minister and three-time MLA Vellakkoil MP Saminathan replaced him.
Even until three years ago, Stalin was opposed to the idea of Udhayanidhi joining politics. In 2016, MK Stalin was quoted by Vikatan as saying, “Neither will my son, nor will my son-in-law join politics. For that matter, I can assure that no one from my family will be joining politics.”
However, things changed in the last two years, with Udhayanidhi even becoming one of the main campaigners for the DMK during the 2019 elections.