Stalin to induct son Udhayanidhi into Cabinet this week

After months of deliberations, Udhayanidhi, the scion of DMK’s first family, will join his father M K Stalin’s cabinet on Wednesday.

45-year-old Udhayanidhi, known as Udhay among party men and his supporters, will take oath as a minister at 9.30 am at Raj Bhavan on December 14, an official communique from the Governor’s office said on Monday evening.

The choice of the date, the penultimate day of the Tamil month of Karthigai, and the time are significant as they are considered auspicious though the DMK claims to profess rationalism.

The swearing-in is being done in Karthigai month as the upcoming Margazhi is considered inauspicious.

Highly placed sources in the DMK and the government told DH that Udhay might be allotted the Youth Welfare and Sports Development portfolio along with Special Programme Implementation (SPI), a key department that oversees the implementation of flagship welfare and development schemes.

“A room is being spruced up at the Secretariat for him to occupy as a minister,” a top source in the know told DH.

The choice of the portfolios is quite interesting as they will allow Udhay to travel across the state, much like Stalin, who began to emerge from his father M Karunanidhi’s shadow after he was made Rural Development Minister in 2006.

“As a minister for sports, Udhay will be tasked with constructing stadiums in all 234 assembly constituencies. This will expose him to the public, and the Special Programme Implementation (SPI) portfolio will make him direct in-charge of several big-ticket projects,” a senior party leader told DH.

And the leader noted that both portfolios are already held as additional charges by Siva V Meyyanathan (Sports) and Stalin (SPI). “Through this, Stalin is sending a message that he has not made his son a minister at the cost of others. This is a very important political messaging within the DMK,” the leader added.

Udhay’s entry into the cabinet is not a mere elevation but a clear hint of Stalin’s succession plans. “This is happening at a very very rapid pace and it is too short a time and too soon an elevation for Udhayanidhi. This is in complete contrast with Stalin’s growth in the party. The latest development raises many questions on the complexities of DMK’s inner politics,” Prof. Ramu Manivannan, who taught history at University of Madras, told DH.

Udhay’s rise in the DMK has been meteoric even for a member of the first family and is in complete contrast with his father Stalin, who climbed the party ladder gradually over the decades. Udhay’s first political outing was in 2018, a year after his grandfather M Karunanidhi was confined to his home, and the next year he was appointed as secretary of the youth wing.

In 2021, Udhay contested the assembly elections from Chepauk-Tiruvallikeni, a constituency in Chennai represented by his grandfather, and won by a massive margin. And in 2022, he might be a minister in his father’s 1.5 years old government.

Stalin, who was groomed by Karunanidhi to succeed him, had to wait for years to join his father’s cabinet. Stalin was inducted as a minister only in 2006, in his fourth term as a legislator and patiently waited for Karunanidhi to hand over the reins to him.

The initial plan, party leaders said, was to induct Udhay into the Cabinet in June 2022 with July-August Chess Olympiad serving as a launch pad. “But the plans were called off as Udhay had film commitments. With his film schedule almost coming to an end now, Udhay wishes to be in the cabinet,” a senior party leader said.

DMK insiders point out that Udhayanidhi’s elevation is being done at this stage only to ensure that he does not have to wait like his father. Stalin’s elevation was resisted at every stage by his elder brother M K Alagiri, but Udhayanidhi is likely to be coronated without much trouble, thanks to his father’s absolute control over the party and the first family.

With Alagiri not even in the party, Kanimozhi is the only immediate family member with an influential post in the DMK and it is very unlikely she will oppose Udhayanidhi’s elevation, a source said.