Internal Strife And Restless Allies Spell Tough Times For DMK's Leadership In Tamil Nadu

All those who were talking of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election being a cinch after its sweep earlier this year in the parliamentary polls are now hedging their bets.

They are hemming and hawing as the party is, after a long time, facing a mini crisis of sorts with intransigent senior partymen on the one side and seemingly recalcitrant couple of allies on the other.

For nearly three years, since it stormed back to power in the state with a strong mandate in 2021, brooked no real political problems. Of course, there were small issues from time to time here and there, but nothing big enough for the party leadership to lose sleep.

Even when the state administration lurched from one controversy to another, and even when it stood exposed for some poor performance, nothing looked to shake it politically. 

Outside too things were proceeding smoothly for the party as the principal opposition party in the state, the AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), looked to be in a house that could do well with some refurbishing and cleaning. The M G Ramachandran-founded party had its own demons to deal with for it to throw up the challenges that would disturb its arch rival.

The Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, which seemed to have picked up some momentum, was stopped in its tracks after the no-show in the state in the parliamentary election. The constant sniping with its one-time ally the AIADMK was also not helping matters in any manner.

And then, Murphy (the universal law, when everything is going well something will go wrong) seems to have struck as far as the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) is concerned. 

CM’s Health And Udhayanidhi’s Possible Elevation

It all seems to have started with the seemingly poor health of the state Chief Minister M K Stalin. Though there is nothing official on record that he is suffering from any ailment, one look at him in recent times would convince anyone that he is not in the best of shapes.

In the circumstances, the idea that his son Udhyanidhi Stalin would be anointed as the deputy chief minister was floated around.

The reports were spread probably to test the reaction that it elicits. As it happened, party insiders seemed to have reacted more adversely than those outside. The party's seniors, who have put in service from M Karunanidhi's time only to see Stalin claim the saddle, were now not too keen to make way for Udhayanidhi that easily. Or at least that is what seemed to be the case when Rajinikanth, who is close to the DMK's first family, made his now viral speech of party seniors proving a tough nut to crack for Stalin.

"For teachers, handling new students is always easy. But the challenge comes in handling old students. Here, all the old students are rank holders who refuse to leave their class after securing pass marks. There is a person called Durai Murugan, who was very tough even for Karunanidhi to handle. Stalin sir, hats off to you for (handling Durai Murugan)," Rajinikanth said with a smiling Stalin clapping.

That speech showed that the party seniors were not ready to roll over and there was some trouble brewing. If anything after Rajini's speech, seniors like Durai Murugan and K N Nehru have doubled down. Durai Murugan recently spoke in Velur saying that youngsters should be given a chance but that doesn't mean they should be given posts immediately. The import of those words was not lost on anybody.

But with Stalin now in the US on a rather bemusingly long trip, the party seniors are trying to keep a low profile, lest they play their card rather aggressively. But the DMK's allies are under no such compulsion. Some of the Congress leaders have taken pot shots at the DMK. A senior and the second-time Member of Parliament (MP) from the state, Karti Chidambaram, has pinned the DMK government down on its claim to have spent Rs 529 crore out of the Rs 750 crore allotted on Cooum improvement (It is the river that flows in Chennai, but for all practical purposes it has been reduced to a drainage for years now).

The Congress, from time to time, has always made some vague noises against the DMK. So it is not a real surprise when someone like Chidambaram is targeting its Dravidian ally. But now the DMK's more trusted partner, the VCK (Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi) has made bold to target the DMK on the blighted liquor issue in the state.

The VCK is organising a conference of sorts against liquor demanding, though it has spelled it out clearly, prohibition in the state. The state administration is the sole retailer of liquor through its Tasmac in Tamil Nadu, and bulk of the state revenue is through it alone. And despite this there have been frequent hooch tragedies in the state, with the recent one in June 2024 claiming close to 100 lives. Liquor has always been an emotive issue in the state, but it has intensified further in the light of recent happenings.

Shadow-Boxing From The VCK?

The irony is that DMK had promised full prohibition (both Stalin and his sister Kanimozhi said as much) before the elections. But have sheepishly gone silent after assuming power. And now with its own ally taking up the matter, things look dicey again.

For all we care, the VCK conference may just be a shadow-boxing, and nothing more may eventually come out of it. But the VCK, which is finding its hold over the crucial Dalit vote bank in the state slipping (due to various events and there being a real yearning among the Dalit community for a non-Dravidian ally), is looking to salvage some of the lost ground. So this kind of seemingly aggressive posturing is a political necessity for it.

But the fact that the VCK is not averse to tangoing with the AIADMK may make the DMK feel the unease rather coldly. VCK chief Thirumavalavan has openly appealed to the AIADMK  to join forces with it in the anti-liquor conference. The AIADMK has so far not responded. 

But things are not all that hunky-dory for the DMK is clear from the words of K N Nehru (a senior minister in Stalin's cabinet), when he recently said at Trichy: "The setup that prevailed during the parliamentary elections whether it would remain for the assembly elections, my view is that definitely a conducive situation may not prevail. This is the view of many others too." 

Seniors like Nehru, Durai Murugan see problems brewing outside. The party high command, however, views the likes of Nehru and Durai Murugan also as a problem. 

Something gotta give, sooner than later.