page_title: Karunanidhi family
section_title: Allegations of nepotism
hierarchical_section_title: Karunanidhi family / Controversy / Allegations of nepotism
caption_attribution_description: English: M.K.Stalin addressing students of Dr.MGR-Janaki College of Arts and Science for Women
context_page_description: M. Karunanidhi has been Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and the DMK party leader from 1969.
  Karunanidhi's grandnephew Dayanidhi Maran has been the union cabinet minister for two terms, once as a Minister of Information and Technology and once as a Minister of Textiles. One of Karunanidhi's sons, M. K. Stalin, has been a four-time MLA in Tamil Nadu Legislative assembly and a one-time deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu; another son, M. K. Alagiri, is the Minister of Chemicals in the central cabinet and also the co-ordinator for South Tamil Nadu for DMK. His daughter Kanimozhi is a nominated Member of the Parliament in Rajya Sabha. His grandnephew Kalanidhi Maran is the owner of the Sun Network, the second largest TV network in India and also Sun Pictures, a Tamil movie production company. The fourth generation of the family comprising Arivunithi, Dayanidhi Azhagiri, Udhayanidhi Stalin and Arulnithi are involved in the Tamil cinema industry.
  The large presence of Karunanidhi's family members both in the central government and state government has led to accusations of political nepotism.
context_section_description: DMK has been accused by opponents, by some members of the party, and by other political observers of trying to promote nepotism and start a political dynasty along the lines of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Vaiko, who quit the DMK, has been the most vocal. Political observers say that Vaiko was sidelined as he was seen as a threat to M.K. Stalin and other family members.
  Karunanidhi's nephew, the late Murasoli Maran, was a Union Minister; however, it has been pointed out that he was in politics long before Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister in 1969. He was arrested several times, including in the Anti-Hindi agitations in 1965. He was asked to contest the by-election for South Madras in 1967 and the nomination papers were signed by Rajaji, Annadurai and Mohammed Ismail (Quaid-e-Millath), demonstrating that his political career was not built entirely on his relation to Karunanidhi.
  Many political opponents and DMK party senior leaders have been critical of the rise of M. K. Stalin in the party. But some of the party men have pointed out that Stalin has come up on his own. He has faced a lot of hardship since 1975, when he was jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and was beaten up in jail so brutally during the Emergency that a fellow DMK party prisoner died trying to save him. Stalin was an MLA in 1989 and 1996 when his father Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister, but he was not inducted into the Cabinet. He became Chennai's 44th mayor and its first directly elected mayor in 1996. It was only in his fourth term as MLA that he was made a Minister in the Karunanidhi cabinet and then in 2009 was made the Deputy Chief Minister.
  Karunanidhi has been accused of helping Murasoli Maran's son Kalanidhi Maran, who runs Sun Network, India's second largest television network. According to Forbes, Kalanidhi is among India's richest 20, with $2.9 billion. Again commentators say that he raised himself into the position on his own merit and even Karunanidhi's sons have achieved nothing compared to him which has been a cause of friction between them. His channels have been the mouth organ of  the DMK party (until recent time) and balanced the Jaya TV of the AIADMK.
  Another son of Maran's, Dayanidhi Maran, is a former Union Minister for Communications and IT portfolio, not broadcasting ministry, which is responsible for TV networks. Dayanidhi Maran was withdrawn from the IT and Communications portfolio at Center (he was a Union Minister for IT and Communications) because Dinakaran survey poll controversy.  He was later given the MP seat in the 2009 general elections from DMK party and subsequently became the Minister of Textiles in the union government.
  The Dinakaran newspaper case was handed over to the CBI. But the District and Sessions court acquitted all the 17 accused in that case. So far, the case has not been appealed in a higher court to identify and punish the perpetrators of the crime.
  Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi is a nominated member of parliament in Rajya Sabha.
caption: M.K. Stalin, son of Karunanidhi
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