Chennai, May 9: This Tamil Nadu election has turned the spotlight on M.K. Stalin for the first time although his father and DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi is contesting and seems disinclined to hang up his boots yet.
Stalin is the DMK's principal campaigner. His image makeover - a switch from white shirt and veshti to stylish trousers, casual shirts and sports shoes and tactical appeals to the youth and middle classes in his speeches - suggest that he is, at 63, eventually looking at life beyond Karunanidhi.
Stalin's website, created by his son-in-law V. Sabarish and DMK youth leader Mahesh Poyyamozhi, reflects the trajectory he has set.
"From Stalin's perspective, being the son of such an illustrious father was a huge challenge - and in many ways a disadvantage," it says, adding that he has converted the "disadvantage" into a "positive influence" and "carved his own niche and identity".
Stalin's elder brother M.K. Alagiri, once a claimant for Karunanidhi's legacy, is out of the picture. "He is silent and stays put in his Madurai home," a party official said.
Stepsister and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi was keen to project herself as the conduit between the DMK and the Congress. But Stalin has demonstrated by personally campaigning with Rahul Gandhi that Kanimozhi has no such role. She has been tasked to mind Karunanidhi's constituency.
Kanimozhi's mother Rajathi is believed to be working behind the scenes to wangle a bigger role for her daughter. Rajathi is seen with Karunanidhi at his public meetings.
But Stalin has countered her moves by putting up posters showing his mother Dayaluammal smiling benignly at him and Karunanidhi. Dayaluammal is no longer seen publicly.
Dayanidhi Maran, Karunanidhi's great-nephew who got entangled in the 2G scam, has resurfaced as errand boy, wheeling the patriarch up on the dais and holding the written speech the DMK chief would read out from. But another 2G accused, former telecom minister A. Raja, is out.
"He has been told not to show his face. It proves that in the DMK, the family eventually rules. How is Raja more at fault than Dayanidhi?" asked a party senior.
He wondered how Stalin's corruption charges against Jayalalithaa would hold water with Dayanidhi's return to the scene.
For all the DMK's family-centric ways, however, the party presidium - made up of Karunanidhi's veteran associates going back to the Dravida movement - may make Stalin's climb to the top that much harder.
"The Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) alone has the will to administer," a party senior said, tossing aside the question how an immobile 93-year-old would lead the state.
"He has been in state politics for 47 years and has been chief minister without knowing a word of English. Stalin should not be compared with the Kalaignar. Stalin is a second-rung leader."
But another DMK veteran said that Stalin had, in the run-up to the elections, succeeded in getting his way on certain matters. For instance, he has persuaded Karunanidhi to drop alliance plans with the MDMK, led by film star Vijayakanth.
"Stalin convinced him that Vijayakanth had certain weaknesses and that his wife (Premalatha) called the shots in his party. The Kalaignar gave in," the source said.
A DMK old-timer taken up with Karunanidhi's once-fabled eloquence said Stalin was "neither a thinker nor a writer - not even an orator".
Stalin's website claims he has a "natural penchant for the stage and public speaking" but his flat speechmaking, evident at a recent road show in Chennai, failed to enthuse listeners even when he attacked Jayalalithaa.
Political observers believe that Stalin's strengths are that he faces no corruption charges despite a long innings as Chennai mayor, and his "straightforward and professional" style of functioning.
