DMK alliance juggles 5 CM wannabes

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Chennai: The just concluded civic polls in Tamil Nadu have brought to the fore a not too closely guarded secret: that there are at least five chief ministerial candidates in waiting within the ruling DMK and its allies.

The list comprises Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's two sons M K Stalin and M K Azhagiri, PMK chief S Ramadoss' son Anbumani, Murasoli Maran's son Dayanidhi. Adding to the list of star sons is the star himself - Vijayakanth.

Post-polls, all have been thrown into the favourable limelight and harbour hopes of one day taking over the chief minister's mantle.

The DMK has won 1,550 municipal seats and its allies another 500. The seven-party alliance has captured about 200 corporation, nearly 2,500 town and 300 district panchayat seats, as well as 2,000 village posts.

Of the 155 wards in Chennai Corporation, the DMK has taken 90 and its friends the rest with only three going to the AIADMK.

The civic polls have ensured that Stalin, 52, a first-time minister who was entrusted with local government, has uninterrupted ‘grassroots loyalty’ for the next five years. It has taken the "heir apparent" 30 long years to get a berth in the Karunanidhi cabinet.

Karunanidhi had banished his other son Azhagiri to Madurai in the 1990s to keep him away from Chennai. But he could be back in the reckoning -- after the civic polls and the by-election to the Madurai Central assembly seat, vacated by the death of DMK strongman P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan, the southern districts are now completely Azhagiri's.

The DMK victory in deep south, for long considered an AIADMK bastion, is credited to Azhagiri's hard work. Azhagiri has not yet made any claims; but for how long is the question.

There are other hopefuls in the fray.

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