Stalin re-elected as DMK chief, sets sight on winning 2024 LS polls in TN

DMK stalwart and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin was unanimously elected as party president at the party's general council meeting held on Sunday

DMK stalwart and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin was unanimously elected as party president at the party's general council meeting held here on Sunday.

In his address following his 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.

The party should win all the 39 Parliamentary constituencies in the state and the lone seat in neighbouring Puducherry as well, he said. This is the second time Stalin is being elected unopposed as party chief.

Exuding confidence that the DMK would win all the 40 Parliamentary segments, he tasked party functionaries to begin work right away to set up booth committees to face the polls and complete the work in two months.

Targeting both the BJP and the AIADMK, Stalin said the saffron party is attempting to do politics in Tamil Nadu against the DMK through defamatory propaganda as it has no achievements to list. "The BJP is trying to do politics by stoking religious and spiritual sentiments," he claimed.

Since the people of Tamil Nadu have never mixed politics with spiritualism, the "BJP is suffocating". The AIADMK is a divided house, riddled with factional feud, and the national party is trying to use it to its benefit. "Do not forget that the BJP would go to any extent of cheap politics to win the next LS polls," he alleged.

The DMK chief told the party functionaries that the AIADMK and BJP would try to insult the party through a campaign of lies in the run up to the Parliamentary polls. "We have to face it through our welfare measures for the people."

After he took over as party chief in 2018, the party has won all the polls, be it the civic polls to rural or urban local bodies and elections to the state Assembly (2021) and the Lok Sabha (2019), he said adding this trend of continuing electoral victories must be sustained at all times.

However, he warned party people against slackness and underlined the need to work together with a team spirit. The party should win hands down the next state Assembly polls (2026) as well, he said.

After the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 2016, the AIADMK is in a shambles and does not have a strong leadership, he said in a veiled attack against the principal opposition party's interim chief, K Palaniswami.

The AIADMK has diminished into four factions, Stalin said, which is seen as a reference to Palaniswami, O Panneerselvam, T T V Dhinakaran and V K Sasikala.

Earlier, in the newly constituted general council, which held its meeting here, the DMK declared Stalin as elected unopposed to the top party post.

Party veterans Duraimurugan (Water Resources Minister) and T R Baalu (Lok Sabha MP) were unanimously elected as general secretary and treasurer respectively. All the three leaders have been elected to their posts for the second time.

As part of the DMK's 15th organisational polls, party president, general secretary and treasurer were elected following recent elections to party posts, at various levels across the state and the new general council was constituted.

I Periyasamy and K Ponmudi (state ministers), Anthiyur P Selvaraj (Rajya Sabha MP) and former Union minister A Raja were named again as deputy general secretaries. Lok Sabha MP and women's wing secretary, Kanimozhi was newly named as a deputy general secretary.

State Minister K N Nehru was renamed as the party's principal secretary. Deputy Speaker K Pitchandi was among the four members elected to the party's audit panel.

When the Chief Minister arrived at the venue of the general council meeting here, he was accorded a rousing reception by party workers.

Stalin said the work of office-bearers, elected from the level of branches to district and other posts would be monitored. The party and its ideology is above individuals and functionaries should work unitedly bearing this in mind, he said.

The 69-year-old top leader, the younger son of late party patriarch M Karunanidhi, has held several party posts, including that of DMK treasurer and youth wing secretary.

On his Twitter handle, Stalin thanked cadres for choosing him as the party chief for the second time and pledged to continue his work to protect the rights of Tamil Nadu.

Leaders of alliance parties, including the Vaiko-led MDMK, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the CPI, greeted Stalin on him being elected as party president. Pattali Makkal Katchi, actor-politician Kamal Haasan were among others who lauded Stalin on becoming party chief again.

Stalin was elected unanimously as party president in 2018 following the demise of Karunanidhi. Stalin is the second president of the DMK. Karunanidhi became the first president of the DMK in 1969 and it was for the first time that the post was created in the party.

Icon of the Dravidian movement and DMK founder C N Annadurai was the party general secretary, the top post till his demise in 1969. The DMK was founded in 1949.