Tamil Nadu former chief minister and president of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam M. Karunanidhi breathed his last on Tuesday evening in Chennai. He was 94.
Karunanidhi was unwell for quite some time and being treated at home under the supervision of Kauvery Hospital in Chennai, where he had undergone a tracheostomy tube replacement.
Born as Daksinamoorthy on June 3, 1924, in Thirukkuvalai village in Nagapattinam district in east Tamil Nadu, to Muthuvelu and Anjugam, Muthuvel Karunanidhi began his political career at the tender age of 14. He was reportedly inspired by a speech by Alagiriswami of the Justice Party and stepped into the political arena with anti-Hindi agitations. He went on to form a student organisation 'Tamil Nadu Tamil Manavar Mandram', the first student wing of the Dravidian movement. He also launched a newspaper which went on to become Murasoli, the mouthpiece of DMK.
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His active involvement in the Kallakudi agitation, under the aegis of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in 1953, gave him wider political exposure. The agitation was against rechristening of Kallakudi in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu to Dalmiapuram.
Kalaignar, as he is fondly called, was elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1957 from Kulithalai assembly constituency in Tiruchirapalli. His rise in the DMK ranks and state politics was quick. In 1961, he became the treasurer of the party and a year later, he was the opposition’s deputy leader in the assembly. Karunanidhi became the public works minister when the party came to power in 1967 and was the chief minister in 1969 after the demise of C.N. Annadurai. He was only 45 then.
In his political career spanning six decades, he occupied the chair of chief minister four more times—1971, 1989, 1996 and 2006. Hailed as the champion of democratic rights who fought against north-centrism, superstition, idolatry, and centralisation, Karunanidhi left a mark in Tamil Nadu politics like his idol Annadurai.
Karunanidhi, who never lost a seat in the elections he contested ever since his first win in 1957, took over the party from Annadurai. Karunanidhi became the president of the party on July 27, 1969 and was holding the post till his death.
A multifaceted figure, Karunanidhi excelled not only in politics. He was a prolific writer who penned plays, poems, novels, screenplays and film songs. Lauding his contribution, former vice president Hamid Ansari had once said, "In Indian politics, he is probably one of the few remaining statesman who have successfully synergised their literary talent, political vision, and social activism with great dexterity.”
Before his active plunge into politics, he began working as a film scriptwriter for Jupiter Pictures at 20. He wrote screenplay for the breakthrough films of both M.G. Ramachandran, who became his political rival later, and Sivaji Ganesan. Through his screenplays, he tried to propagate socialist and rationalist ideas of the Dravidian movement and opposed Brahmanism. Some of his popular films include Rajakumaari, Thirumbi Paar, Kaanchi Thalaivan, Malaikkallan, Manohara, Kuravanji, Thayillapillai, Rangoon Radha, Poomalai and Poompuhar.
Karunanidhi married thrice. His first wife, Padmavathi, died young in 1944, leaving behind a son, M.K. Muthu. He married Dayaluammal four years after the death of Padmavathi. He has four children from Dayaluammal—M.K. Alagiri, M.K. Stalin, M.K. Tamilarasu, and M.K. Selvi. Later, he fell in love with Rajathiammal and married her. Kanimozhi is their daughter.