Udhayanidhi Stalin Becomes Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

DMK MLA Ezhilan Naganathan praised the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to elevate Udhayanidhi Stalin as the Deputy Chief Minister. Speaking on Sunday, Naganathan highlighted the various schemes Udhayanidhi has initiated as State Minister and his role as DMK youth wing secretary.

“It is a very cherishable moment in Dravidian history that our sports minister has been performing in all arenas of the government, all the major government projects he has been handling, especially giving Rs 1000 to women for empowerment. We also did the formula 4 racing; we have taken a huge stride in sports,” Naganathan said.

The announcement of Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, being elevated as the Deputy Chief Minister comes as part of a major cabinet reshuffle in the state government. The reshuffle will also witness V Senthil Balaji being re-inducted into the state cabinet. Apart from Balaji, CM Stalin has also recommended inducting Govi Chezhiaan, R Rajendran, and SM Nasar into the Council of Ministers.

Naganathan added that the party takes the importance of youth empowerment seriously, claiming that since Udhayanidhi Stalin is also the party’s youth wing secretary, such a move will fuel the energy of the youth. “This is a welcoming trend addition by the Chief Minister because youth empowerment is very essential. It will fuel youth energy into our political party, because also being the youth wing secretary and now deputy chief minister, there will be a superb sync between the party activities as well as the government,” he added.

Dismissing BJP’s criticisms on Udhayanidhi’s elevation, the DMK leader said, “BJP should think on speaking on dynasty politics because I could give a list of at least 27 names of various sons and daughters of major political supremos who have taken positions in the BJP party, so they are not in a position to question this particular line.”

“Regarding dynastic politics, here we have a youth wing secretary being a party member right from his childhood days, working for DMK symbol and election campaigning. Then his role as youth wing secretary has been performing really well as a party activity from 2019. His role in the parliamentary election was very high, and he was also a role model MLA in the assembly election. Then being given an opportunity as sports minister. In Tamil Nadu’s previous regimes, you would not be able to name a sports minister, but now we have made a mark, it was a soft portfolio but he made it important,” the MLA said.

Earlier, several BJP leaders, including Shehzad Poonawalla, Tamilisai Soundararajan, ANS Prasad, and Narayanan Thirupathy, criticised the DMK for indulging in nepotism by putting the family first instead of the state’s welfare. “One thing is very clear. These parties are of the family, for the family, and by the family. They focus on only family first, and not nation first. They are a Pvt Ltd ‘parivarik company.’ The entire INDI alliance is like that. They have two pillars, ‘bhrashtachar’ and ‘parivaar’,” Shehzad Poonawalla said earlier.

Udhayanidhi Stalin and other newly-appointed council of ministers are likely to take oath later today.