In Karunanidhi's passing the real loser is Tamil Nadu and Tamil language. So far there is no one on the horizon to fill the vacuum left behind by him, says R Rajagopalan.
Karunanidhi, 94, died at the Kauvery hospital on Tuesday following prolonged illness.
He said these were the DMK's demands and his long time wish. Tamil youths should work for the fulfilment of these demands and people of other states should co-operate for achieving it.
He said that Stalin has come a long way from organising youth under the party in his younger days to moulding himself as a future leader of the DMK.
Amid a growing chorus in the party for his elevation, Tamil Nadu sports minister and son of Chief Minister M K Stalin, Udhayanidhi, was elevated as the deputy CM on Saturday with additional responsibility, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw the return of V Senthil Balaji to the council of ministers two days after securing bail in a money laundering case.
Sports personalities from all the country took to Twitter to pay homage to the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
Sandhya Ravishankar describes the thorny relationship between the two political titans of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, both now part of the ages.
The minister's reaction came days after Rajinikanth praised Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for "managing" senior DMK leaders in the party.
Even as parleys continue in both states, the grand old party is expected to contest less than 110 seats in the November 20 polls for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.
Glowing tributes were paid to the departed leader in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, before the Houses were adjourned for the day.
The crowd, who was trying to barge inside the hospital, was lathi-charged on Sunday night by the police deployed to avoid any unwelcome situation.
Party sources said the former Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister had been complaining of 'uneasiness' for the past two days and was taken to the hospital.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi on Tuesday said he will be the chief minister if his party wins the May 16 assembly election.
They said the picture did not feature any 'life support system like a ventilator' and it was reassuring that their Thalaivar (leader) was recuperating well.
The 94-year-old leader is currently being treated for fever due to urinary tract infection with intravenous antibiotics and fluids.
Eighty-six-year-old Karunanidhi, accompanied by his sons Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin and Union Minister M K Alagiri, filed his papers before the election officer Jayaraj.
"By making this assertion, Karunanidhi is not expressing his concern for the poor and downtrodden in the state. On the contrary he was only publicly reinforcing the rich-poor divide," she said in a statement in Chennai.
Balaji was arrested on June 14 last year by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged cash-for-jobs scam when he was the transport minister in an earlier AIADMK government.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi turned 90 on Monday with scores of party cadres celebrating the occasion by bursting crackers and distributing sweets across the state.
After an unsavoury courtroom battle, his party won to secure for him the final resting place at the Chennai landmark
'The one who worked with no rest, rests here'
The 94-year old former Tamil Nadu chief minister was under continuous monitoring and treated with active medical support, a press release by Kauvery Hospital said.
Tiruvarur is one of the worst-hit districts in the Cauvery delta region of Tamil Nadu due to severe cyclonic storm Gaja in November, 2018.
Raising questions about the impartiality of the Election Commission ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said on Wednesday the EC should prove by its deeds that it was a neutral body.
Unlike the regimes of Jayalalitha, Palaniswami and Karunanidhi, ministers are actually getting to make decisions on their own, with the unmentioned rider that they would be held responsible and accountable, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Modi described the DMK chief as a prolific thinker and a deep-rooted mass leader who stood for regional aspiration and national progress.
Tamil Nadu chief secretary said that the request could not be sanctioned, owing to the legal issues at Marina Beach.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi was admitted to a private hospital on Friday due to back problem, a release said.
"I just met him, I wanted to personally wish him a speedy recovery. I was very happy to see that he is doing well and the doctors told me that he is going to go home pretty soon and that is good news," said the Congress vice president after meeting the 92-year-old leader.
DMK working president M K Stalin has appealed to cadres to remain calm and to follow discipline in 'this hour of grief'.
Vedanti warned that the Hindus would march to New Delhi and give a befitting reply if Karunanidhi did not withdraw his utterances on Lord Ram by November 20.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi on Tuesday appeared to doubt the Election Commission's neutrality, asking if the poll body was 'pretending' to be so in enforcing the model code of conduct.
Efforts by the Maran brothers to patch up with their grand uncle and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi appeared to have failed on Tuesday as they went to greet him on his 85th birthday but had to leave without a meeting.Karunanidhi's son M K Azhagiri said Kalanidhi Maran and Dayanidhi Maran "came to meet my father at my sister Kanimozhi's house and greet him on his birthday but my father refused to meet them. After waiting for more than half an hour, they left".
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was briefly hospitalised on Monday for urinary tract infection.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi on Friday described Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as a 'hardworker' and a 'good friend.'
If the BJP has to work as a junior partner of Vijay's TVK, then either the party will have to change the state leader, or the latter should change himself. Incidentally, ever since Vijay started talking politics and elections, the pro-BJP/Hindutva social media had stopped dragging his name into any non-existing issue.' In particular, they have stopped referring to him by his Christian name, 'Joseph Vijay', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
Having burnt his fingers with MGR very badly in the past and later with Vaiko, it suited the DMK chief, when disgruntled cadres upset with Stalin's choice for lower-rung party positions, began gravitating towards another member of the DMK's 'first family', says N Sathiya Moorthy
'With passage of time, Kamal did move away from the humdrum of commercial cinema, using it only as a peg to launch a new concept or new technology, as no other actor/film-maker has done in Indian cinema.' N Sathiya Moorthy assesses the career and politics of movie legend Kamal Haasan on his 70th brthday.
'We shall not see the like of Kalaignar again, and our nation is poorer without his wise statesmanship, and his dedication to our country and our people,' she said.
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