M K Stalin

M. K. Stalin is an Indian politician and belongs to the state of Tamil Nadu. He got his name from Joseph Stalin, a Soviet politician as well as a revolutionary who died in the same year as M. K. Stalin was born, just four days after his birth. He is the president of the political party called Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Stalin was the mayor of the city of Chennai from the year 1996 to 2002.

Born on March 1, 1953, he was also the very first deputy chief minister of the state of Tamil Nadu. He is the son of M. Karunanidhi, the third chief minister of Tamil Nadu. His mother is Dayalu Ammal. M. K. Stalin attended The New College in Chennai which is under the University of Madras and completed his graduation in history.

Shortly after, he got the position of Rural Development and local administration minister after the Assembly election in 2006. In 2009 the governor of Tamil Nadu gave Stalin's nomination for the post of Deputy Chief Minister. In the year 2013, Karunanidhi expressed her desire to hand over the party’s onus on Stalin’s shoulders, post his death.

Stalin’s political career dates back to the time when he was a teenager, about fourteen years old. At that age, he participated in campaigning for the elections to be organised in the year 1967. A few years later, in 1973 he got elected as a general committee member of the political organization Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Since 1989 he took part in many elections and got elected four times into the Tamil Nadu Assembly. In 1996, he became the very first mayor directly elected in the city of Chennai. In 2001, election results got him the post, yet again. The then chief minister J. Jayalalithaa put forth the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws Amendment Act of 2002 which does not allow a single person to hold two or more elected posts as a member of the government.

Later this law was rejected by the high court of Madras, but another law enacted which states that no person can be a mayor for two consecutive years. M. K. Stalin faced imprisonment for many reasons involving public issues. He was mistreated in prison and beaten and that a fellow prisoner who was also a DMK member lost his life in an attempt to save him from the torture. Stalin was also part of a controversy when he openly blamed V. K. Sasikala for Jayalalitha’s death.