(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –M K Stalin was elected president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Tuesday at the party’s General Council meeting. The 65-year-old, has been poised to take over the reins of the party from his father, the late M Karunanidhi, had filed his nomination papers on Sunday.
Stalin, who has been at the helm of DMK’s affairs since the run-up to the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections in 2016, was appointed ‘working president’ of the party in 2017. He is the third leader of the party, after founder C N Annadurai and Karunanidhi.
Karunanidhi’s death on August 7 had led to a succession war within the party, with expelled party leader M K Alagiri — Karunanidhi’s son — claiming DMK’s “true loyalists” were on his side. Despite being expelled from the party in 2014 for ‘anti-party activities’, Alagiri has claimed he is heir to the party and has questioned Stalin’s leadership. On the eve of the General Council meet, Alagiri had warned of consequences if he was not readmitted to the party.
