Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
M. K. Stalin
12th and current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin[a] (born 1 March 1953) is an Indian politician who, since 2021, is serving as the eighth Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. His tenure as president of the political party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) began on 28 August 2018 and he served as the party's working president of party from January 2017 to August 2018.
Stalin, who was born in 1953, is the third son of former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi and completed his education at Presidency College in Chennai in 1973. He is married to Durga, and their son Udhayanidhi is the state's current deputy chief minister.
Stalin began his political career in the late 1960s and he was elected to DMK's general committee in 1973. He was jailed during the Emergency in 1976. He became the secretary of the party's youth wing in 1982, a post he held for more than four decades. He served as the 45th mayor of Chennai from 1996 to 2002. He has been elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly eight times, and he served as the state's first deputy chief minister from 2009 to 2011.
In 2009, Anna University conferred upon Stalin an honorary doctorate. In 2022, The Indian Express named Stalin India's 24th-most-powerful personality.
Remove ads
Early and personal life
Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin was born in Chennai on 1 March 1953 as the third son of M. Karunanidhi, the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, and Dayalu Ammal. He was named after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.[1][2] Stalin was educated at Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School.[3] He completed a pre-university course at Vivekananda College and obtained a degree in history from Presidency College in 1973.[4]
Stalin married Durga (alias Shantha) on 20 August 1975. They have two children.[4] Their son, Udhayanidhi Stalin, is an actor and politician who since 2024 is deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu.[5] Their daughter Senthamarai is an entrepreneur and education professional.[6][7] Stalin is an Atheist.[8][9][10]
Remove ads
Political career
Summarize
Perspective
Early career
Stalin began his political career in his early teens when he, with some friends, founded the youth wing of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Gopalapuram.[11] At 14 years old, he campaigned for his uncle, Murasoli Maran, in the 1967 Madras State Legislative Assembly election.[12][13] In 1973, he was elected to the general committee of the DMK.[14]
In 1976, Stalin was jailed in Madras Central Prison under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act for protesting against the the Emergency.[15][16][17] Whilst in police custody, he endured torture that which resulted in the death of his fellow prisoner C. Chittibabu.[18][19][20] He wrote his final-year college exams whilst in prison.[2]
Youth wing and MLA
Stalin established the youth wing of the DMK in 1980 and became its secretary in 1982, a post he held for more than four decades.[2] During the 1980s, he travelled across Tamil Nadu to encourage and mentor youth to join active politics.[21] In 1989, he was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from Thousand Lights Assembly constituency, and represented the constituency five times.[2] In 2003, he became Deputy General Secretary of the DMK.[11]
Mayor of Chennai
Stalin became the Mayor of Chennai in 1996.[22] As mayor, he initiated the Singara Chennai (Beautiful Chennai) project to improve the city's infrastructure.[2] He modernised the garbage disposal system by giving priority to cleaning works, and implemented development projects in areas such as health, public construction and schools. He built flyovers to address traffic congestion.[23] During his first tenure, nine major flyovers and 49 bridges were constructed at a cost of ₹0.95 billion (US$11 million).[24] He also worked on improving the standard of corporation-run schools to be on par with private schools.[25][26] Parks and fountains were set up at 18 major junctions, 81 parks were renovated, and saplings were planted at Marina Beach.[27] His efforts in improving city infrastructure earned him the title of Managara Thanthai (father of the city).[28]
Stalin was re-elected Mayor for the second time in 2001.[29] In 2002, the chief minister J. Jayalalithaa enacted the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act, which prevented a person from holding two elected posts in the government.[26] Because Stalin was an elected member of the legislative assembly, this law was widely seen as an attempt to remove him as Chennai's mayor.[30] Madras High Court later struck down the law but held as per the City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919, a person cannot be mayor for two consecutive terms, though unlike Stalin, earlier mayors were not directly elected.[28] As a result, Stalin resigned from the post.[31]
Minister and deputy chief minister
The DMK regained control of the state assembly in the 2006 assembly elections. Stalin became the minister for rural development and local administration in the Government of Tamil Nadu, and retained this office throughout his term. During his tenure, he expanded women's self-help groups across the state by establishing 175,493 new ones. He also established drinking water projects such as the Hogenakkal and Ramanathapuram water schemes.[13][26] In 2008, he became the DMK's treasurer.[11]
On 29 May 2009, the Governor of Tamil Nadu Surjit Singh Barnala appointed Stalin the state's deputy chief minister.[32][33][34] During his tenure, on 23 February 2011, the Government of Tamil Nadu received a special award for the best state among the largest states in India, and the diamond state award for best state in civil safety, drinking water and sanitation, and women's development.[35] The state also won the most number of Nirmal Gram Awards for its exceptional role in maintaining sanitation in villages during Stalin's tenure as the minister of rural development.[36]
Opposition leader and DMK president
In 2013, Karunanidhi announced Stalin as his successor to head the DMK and confirmed it in 2016.[37][38] Ahead of the 2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, Stalin went on a statewide tour titled Namakku Naame. He won the Kolathur constituency and was appointed opposition leader in the state legislative assembly.[39] In 2017, Stalin went on another Namakku Naame tour.[40] He was appointed as working president in January 2017 when the health of his father, Karunanidhi, started declining. In 2018, Karunanidhi died and Stalin became president of the DMK.[13]
Stalin formed the Secular Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu and led the alliance in the state in the 2019 Indian general election.[41][42] The Secular Progressive Alliance won 39 out of 40 Parliament seats, and 12 out of 21 in the assembly by-elections, in the party's first victory since Stalin took charge as the DMK's president.[43][44]
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Stalin led the campaign for the Secular Progressive Alliance in the 2021 Assembly elections; it won 159 seats out of the 234, with the DMK winning 133 seats, an absolute majority.[45] He was sworn in as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu on 7 May 2021, along with the rest of his cabinet.[46][47]
Stalin assumed office during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and established a war room to monitor the status of beds, ambulances, and oxygen supply.[48] He visited the COVID-19 patients in the Government ESI Medical College Hospital against expert advice.[49] Tamil Nadu had the highest coronavirus vaccine wastage under the previous government, but the lowest COVID-19 vaccine wastage during Stalin's tenure.[50] On 2 September 2021, actor and politician Chiranjeevi met with Stalin to commend him on governance efficacy; Chiranjeev said Stalin had proved his mettle in handling the pandemic. Media in Kerala lauded Stalin on his policies and efforts in controlling the spread of COVID-19 during the second wave, provision of free bus passes for women and ₹4,000 as a pandemic relief for ration card holders.[51]
Stalin established a new economic advisory council that included economists Esther Duflo, Raghuram Rajan, Jean Drèze, Arvind Subramanian, and former Finance Secretary S Narayan.[52] Stalin handed appointment orders of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to trained aspirants of all castes as temple priests in August 2021.[53] In an official release, Stalin quoted the reformist leader Thanthai Periyar, saying Periyar fought for equal rights in worship for all believers in God.[54] In September 2021, he changed the name of refugee camps of Sri Lankan Tamils to rehabilitation camps and said: "They are not orphans, we are there for them".[55] In September 2021, he announced Periyar's birthday would be celebrated annually as a social justice day.[56]
In June 2021, Stalin announced the state law ministry would review legal cases filed by the previous government. In September 2021, his government withdrew over 5,570 legal cases filed by the previous government in the past ten years against journalists and protesters against the the three farm laws promulgated by the union government in 2020, the Citizenship Amendment Act, methane extraction, a neutrino project, Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant and the Chennai-Salem expressway project.[57][58] In September 2021, the Madras High Court commended Stalin for utilising school bags with the photos of previous chief ministers, and not reprinting them.[59][60] In December 2021, he unveiled a real-time dashboard, which provided relevant information from all the government departments.[61]
In May 2022, he welcomed the release of A. G. Perarivalan, who was convicted for the assassination of former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi.[62][63][64][65][66] Stalin served as a member of the business advisory committee and committee on rules in the 16th Tamil Nadu assembly.[67]
Electoral performance
Stalin unsuccessfully contested the 1984 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, standing for the Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai,[4] to which he was first elected in 1989.[68] In 1991, he contested the same seat for the third time and lost. He had been elected to the assembly consecutively six times since 1996.[4]
Remove ads
Public image and perception
In August 2021, Stalin was ranked first among chief ministers of India in the India Today "Mood of the Nation" survey.[69] The Indian Express named Stalin as India's 24th-most-powerful personality in 2022,[70] and 23rd in 2025.[71]
Awards and accolades
On 1 August 2009, Anna University conferred upon Stalin an honorary doctorate for his contributions to governance and community development.[72][73][74][75] The Kentucky Colonel Award, the highest award given by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the United States, was given to Stalin for his public service.[76] He was also honoured as Kentucky's goodwill ambassador.[77]
See also
Notes
- /stɑːlɪn, -lin/, Tamil pronunciation: ['mut̪ːuʋeːl kaɾuˈɳaːniði sʈaːˈlin] ⓘ
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads