Karunanidhi Muthuvel - Free Essay Example

Karunanidhi Muthuvel is the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is one of the founder members of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. He is also the head of DMK from the death of C. N. Annadurai in 1969 till date. He has been the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu five times (1969-71, 1971-74, 1989-91, 1996-2001 and 2006-date). He holds the record of winning every election that he fought in his political career spanning over 60 years. He led the UPA inTamil Nadu and Pondicherry to win all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections. He was born in an Isai Vellalar caste as Dakshinamurthy to Thiru Muthuvelar and Thirumathi Anjugam Ammaiyar on June 3, 1924 at Thirukkuvalai in the Tanjore District, (now Tiruvarur) [Tamil Nadu], India. His mother was a temple dancer. Coming from a humble and poor family the clan of Karunanidhi have made it to the top of Tamilnadu politics. He took Over as Chief Minister 13 May 2006 after his coalition defeated his m ain opponent J. Jayalalithaa in the May 2006 elections. He currently represents the constituency of Chepauk in Central Chennai in theTamil Nadu state Legislative Assembly. He has been elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for 11 times and once to the now abolished Tamil Nadu Legislative Council. Karunanidhi began his career as a scriptwriter in the Tamil film industry. He is known for his wit and oratorical skills, qualities which helped his rapid rise as a popular politician. He was famous for writing historical and social (reformist) stories which propagated the socialist and rationalist ideals of the Dravidian movement to which he belonged. Karunanidhi entered politics at the age of 14 inspired listening to a speech by Alagiriswami of the Justice Party by whom he was greatly influenced in 1932 and participated in Anti-Hindi agitations. He founded an organisation for the local youth of his locality. He circulated a hand written newspaper called Manavar Nesan to its members. Later he founded a student organisation calledTamil Nadu Tamil Manavar Manram which was the first student wing of the Dravidan Movement. Karunanidhi involved himself and the student community in social work with other members he would visit the nearby hutments to do all that was possible within his limit. Here he started a newspaper for its members which grew into Murasoli newspaper which is the DMK partys official newspaper. Karunanidhi has been arrested several times in long political career fighting for public causes this including against price increase, Anti-Hindi Agitation, for Eelam Tamils and other political activities. [citation needed]He has been arrested over 14 times. Even in jail he set up a shadow government, and allocated responsibilities to everyone of his cadres. During his periods in jail (he was incarcerated more than seven times between 1953 and 1965), Karunanidhi read and wrote extensively in prison. Karunanidhi led a struggle in a bid was instrum ental in the Kallakudi struggle to rename Dalmiapuram railway Station. Karunanidhi was entrusted with the task of organizing the struggle. The cadres were divided into three batches, and Karunanidhi led the batch which lay down on the railway station, blocking the train by putting his head on the rail and made powerful slogan udal mannukku, uyir tamilukku (Body to soil and Life to Tamil) that attracted many to join him. They were promptly arrested, the second group also met the same fate. When the third group lead by Kannadasan took its turn chaos broke, the police resorted to firing leading to the death of two. Karunanidhi was lodged in Thiruchirapalli Central Jail. Karunanidhi was first elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly in 1957 from the Kulithalai assembly constituency in the Thiruchirapalli district. He became the DMK treasurer in 1961 and deputy leader of opposition in 1962 and when the DMK came to power in 1967, he became the minister for public works. When Annadurai died i n 1969. Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister. He has held various positions in the Tamil