Stalin style visible in Udhayanidhi’s connect trip 

His maiden outreach programme had the influence of Stalin written all over it. The trip he undertook last week covering nearly half a dozen districts was a near imitation of the Namakku Naamey campaign of Stalin carried out ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections. The only difference was Udhayanidhi connected with the cadre, while his father Stalin, understandably, reached out to the voters.

Be it solemnising party workers’ weddings or granting audience to party veterans, handing out membership cards to cadre and lending ears to informed speakers lecture on Dravidian legacy and anti-Hindi agitation, DMK old timers felt, the political greenhorn had pulled a leaf out of the book of his father and to an extent his grandfather. His use of informed in-hour Dravidian historians at Dharmapuri was a case in point. The latest political entrant from Karunanidhi clan had put Dravida Iyakka Tamizhar Peravai leader Suba Veerapandian and former minister Thangam Thennarasu to good use at the Dharamapuri meeting in which they waxed eloquent about the language struggle of the Dravidian movement. Surprisingly, the DMK youth wing secretary had no qualms in admitting his intellectual shortcomings even in the tour summary posted on his official Twitter handle. A modest Udhayanidhi had stated in his tour report that it is a truth the Dharmapuri meeting was a return to college days because he had come to learn from the two teachers. His recap of anti-Hindi agitation before felicitating former district secretary R Chinnasamy at Dharmapuri, earnest request to district secretaries of Cuddalore ahead of the visit to Neyveli unit office of LPF and recall of party founder CN Annadurai’s description of the DMK flag before hoisting it in Krishnagiri had the imprint of his grandfather Karunanidhi, said a DMK district secretary who did not wish to be named, before suggesting that the youngster would do well if the events were a little more natural in future.