Star Candidate: M K Stalin to contest from Kolathur

Stalin completed his graduation in from The Presidency College, Chennai. He was the first Mayor of Chennai Corporation (1996-2001) to have been directly elected by the people. His term happened to change the landscape of Chennai as a metropolis. He was the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 2009 to 2011. At present, he serves as the Treasurer and the Youth Wing President of DMK. Interestingly, the 63-year-old politician who was named after the Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin, has also acted in two movies and a couple of television series in his 20s.  

Stalin gained more popularity through his “Namakku Naame” campaign, during which the politician walked the dusty roads and mingled with the common man and sipped tea at the road side tea shops in an attempt to reach out to the people. However, the results polls will reveal the impact that the campaign created amidst the people of Tamil Nadu. 

In the forthcoming polls, Stalin is contesting from the newly formed Kolathur constituency that was carved out of Villivakkam and Purasawalkam assembly segments after delimitation process in 2008. He is contesting against JCD Prabhakar (AIADMK), the current MLA of Villivakkam constituency, KT Raghavan of BJP, Mathivanan of DMDK and Gopal of PMK. 

MK Stalin contested his first election in 1984 from Thousand Lights constituency and lost against ADK (now called AIADMK) candidate KA Krishnasamy with a margin of 2292. Out of the total six elections he contested in Thousand Lights constituency, he won four times (1989, 1996, 2001 and 2006) and lost twice (1984 and 1991). He was inducted into the DMK cabinet as the Minister for Municipal Administration and Rural Development and was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in 2009 during the DMK rule.