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Does Karunanidhi need a deputy?

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

Opinion in the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu is divided over the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi having a deputy, a la Jyoti Basu in West Bengal.

While DMK cadres and second-rung leaders concede that Karunanidhi is over-worked and needs somebody to share his burden, they are not quite sure if a deputy chief minister would be the right remedy.

There are two more reasons why they have not warmed up to the idea. One, the suggestion has come from an outsider - Dr S Ramadoss, the founder of Pattali Makkal Katchi, a DMK ally. Two, Ramadoss has proposed the name of Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin, currently mayor of Chennai,

"It's purely an internal affair of the DMK, and Ramadoss has no business to interfere in our affairs," said a senior DMK minister. "Will he accept if I were to say that he should have such and such person as his party president, or general secretary?''

PMK sources said Ramadoss' had no ulterior motive and had only DMK's good in his mind when he made the suggestion.

"Karunanidhi is the seniormost leader of the alliance. We must reduce his administrative burden if he has to concentrate on the forthcoming assembly elections,'' a senior PMK leader said.

He said Ramadoss was only airing a view that had found wide acceptance within the party. He also revealed that none of the DMK leaders would admit it openly, afraid as they were of a political backlash.

What, however, has not gone down well with the DMK leaders is Ramadoss' suggestion that Stalin share some of his father's duties. Some felt that Karunanidhi had used Ramadoss to pre-empt any opposition to his son's growth in the state politics.

The PMK camp, however, believes that when the DMK leaders had kept quiet when Stalin was being promoted within the party all these years, there was no reason why they should act any differently now.

Indications are that the DMK may take Ramadoss' suggestion seriously at the end of the organisational elections.

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