MK Stalin of DMK leads by a fair margin in Kolathur, as his party gets ready to take charge of the Tamil Nadu

As of 5 p.m, MK Stalin of DMK was leading in Kolathur constituency amassing a vote share of 57%.

MK Stalin has been nurturing the dreams of becoming Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, a post which his father M. Karunanidhi had held several terms in the past.

Kolathur is very well known to Stalin and having been associated with this constituency from 2011, he feels at home here to face the election confidently. If he wins from this seat, he will become the legislator from here for the third consecutive term. His opponent, also fighting for this seat is Aadi Rajaram fielded by the AIADMK. Earlier once, Stalin had defeated Aadi Rajaram in Thousand Lights constituency with a thin margin of votes.

Stalin had been the deputy chief minister under his father. The party elected him as the leader after the demise of Karunanidhi. Now Stalin also heads the opposition in the state assembly. Stalin is seen fervently pursuing the election campaign to become the chief minister of the state for the first time in his life.

Stalin and Kolathur constituency

Kolathur seat was born in 2011 after the reorganisation of constituencies. Right from the first election the constituency faced, Stalin’s name has been figuring on the ballot paper for DMK in all the elections.

The compelling reason for Stalin to choose Kolathur constituency is the fact that this had proved to be a strong bastion for DMK. In the 2016 assembly elections, Stalin won from here scoring 91,303 votes. His winning margin was 37,730 votes, which made up around 22.42 per cent of the total number of votes the people casted.

Over the past 10 years, he has nurtured this constituency with a lot of developmental activities. Kolathur constituency has the advantage of a sizeable Muslim population. The large middle class and lower middle class segment here also favors DMK. Stalin enjoys a strong support of the Muslim groups and left unions. Stalin’s wife Durga is also seen actively campaigning for his husband as well as for the party.

A worthy opponent for Stalin

Aadi Rajaram is the South Chennai North (East) district secretary of the AIADMK. In the 2006 elections, he faced Stalin in the Thousand Lights constituency. Stalin could win him with a thin margin of 2,468 votes. This is one of the reasons why AIADMK has decided to field Aadi Rajaram against Stalin in Kolathur now.

Stalin’s advantages

Stalin also enjoys the advantage of facing the election with the title of DMK’s party president. The party structure is now very strong. Stalin had been a political personality accepted by all people beyond the barriers of caste and religion. This status is something that he enjoys after Karunanidhi and J.Jayalalitha. Unlike most politicians of the day, he has few corruption charges against him.

Stalin has a few weaknesses

One of the weaknesses of Stalin is he has failed to create a rapport with the party people and the general masses. AIADMK has been campaigning with a strong election manifesto and also strictly condemning the family politics of DMK.

“Stalin’s victory is imminent”, say political experts

The scene at the Kolathur constituency is quite encouraging for DMK. Stalin had been visiting the constituency very often and had been spending a lot of money from his constituency development funds to accomplish several welfare projects in this base over the past five years. Political experts opine it is not that easy to defeat Stalin at Kolathur.


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