M Karunanidhi Birth Anniversary: Must-know facts about the popular former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

Muthuvel Karunanidhi (popularly known as Kalaignar), an Indian writer and politician who served as the 2nd Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, was born on June 3, 1924, in Thirukuvalai, Madras Presidency, British India. And, on this day in 2023, take a moment to recall his decades-long career in politics and literature and the turbulent times he has faced as Chief Minister.

All you need to know about M Karunanidhi: 

• Born in a small village in Eastern Tamil Nadu into a caste of musicians, he left his schooling early and became a screenwriter in the Tamil film industry where he promoted Dravidians over Brahmanas, something that later helped him in his political career.

• Karunanidhi became involved in politics in his early teens, beginning with public protests against the use of Hindi in the region. He formed organizations for the local youth and students and started a newspaper that eventually became the ‘Murasoli’, the DMK’s official newspaper.

• He became a close associate of DMK founder CN Annadurai and first received broader notice in Tamil politics when he led a 1953 protest in a town where its Tamil name had been replaced with one honouring an industrialist from northern India with a Hindi name.

• First elected to Madras State’s Legislative Assembly in 1957 and was continually re-elected, eventually becoming the party’s treasurer and leader of the opposition in 1961. 

• When the DMK won in the 1967 state elections and Annadurai became the CM, Karunanidhi became the Minister for Public Works. Annadurai died in early 1969, and Karunanidhi succeeded him as the head of DMK and as chief minister. 

• His first tenure lasted only until January 1971, but another DMK victory in assembly elections later that year returned him to the chief minister’s office.

• However, in 1972, a new party called the AIADMK split from the DMK and the two parties became bitter rivals and traded terms heading the state government. Both the DMK and the AIADMK used those tenures in power to settle scores with one another.

• In 1996 a Karunanidhi-led DMK government filed several corruption charges against Jayalalitha, leader of the AIADMK, who then spent a short time in jail. 

• In 2001, after the AIADMK had returned to power following assembly elections that year, Karunanidhi was arrested and briefly detained on corruption charges related to highway-construction projects which were later dismissed.

• In 2006, at the age of 82, Karunanidhi became CM of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time, after a DMK-Congress alliance had secured a majority of seats in assembly elections. The party had won on the promise that it would provide cheap rice to the citizens and a free tv for every house in the state.

• By 2011, however, they were not enough to overcome allegations of corruption, and the party was thoroughly defeated by the AIADMK in assembly elections. Although he easily retained his seat, only 22 other DMK candidates could win. 

• He was by then in poor health, but he remained the DMK’s supreme leader and continued to command immense popularity in Tamil Nadu politics.

• Made MK Stalin the leader of the party in 2017 due to health issues and eventually passed away on August 7, 2018 in Chennai.