Stalin’s envoy: In Kanimozhi’s elevation, consensus about party’s voice in Delhi

DMK MP Kanimozhi’s appointment earlier this week as the party’s parliamentary floor leader marks a major elevation for the leader and sets the stage for her to assume a prominent national role.

Kanimozhi is the daughter of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi and the stepsister of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin. She takes over as parliamentary floor leader — a post that requires her to handle the party’s affairs in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha — from veteran party leader and former Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu.

Top DMK leaders said Kanimozhi’s new role was part of the strategy to prepare the next generation of leaders for the national stage. In the previous Lok Sabha, the role was helmed by party veteran T R Baalu, who is now 83 years old. “M K Stalin in Tamil Nadu and Kanimozhi in Delhi,” as a DMK leader put it, when asked about Kanimozhi’s appointment. For Stalin, his sister can play the role that former Union Minister Murasoli Maran played for his father.

Across the DMK ranks, there is a consensus that she is the right person for the job, with her growing stature in Thoothukudi, the constituency she has represented since 2019. This time, she won with 3.93 lakh votes, an improvement from her 2019 margin of 3.47 lakh votes. “She went to prison for the party,” said a senior DMK minister, referring to the almost six-month period that Kanimozhi spent in Tihar Jail following her arrest in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

A DMK leader said, “She won a Lok Sabha seat when a Rajya Sabha seat would have been easier. She has now been re-elected in an election where the Opposition lost deposits. She played a crucial role during the Thoothukudi floods last December. There is nothing to be surprised about by this appointment.”

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