Education
Stalin completed his graduation in history from The New College, Chennai in University of Madras.
Stalin completed his graduation in history from The New College, Chennai in University of Madras.
M. K. Stalin was born in Madras, now Chennai. His political career began when as a 14-year old, he campaigned in the 1967 elections. In 1973 Stalin was elected to the General committee of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
He came to limelight when he was jailed under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) for protesting against the Emergency.[4] Stalin has been elected four times to the Tamil Nadu Assembly since 1989 from the Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai. Stalin became the city's first directly elected Mayor in 1996.
Stalin has been arrested several times on various public issues since he was first arrested in 1975 under MISA, which is close to terrorism and goondas act. severe physical punishment has been imposed on him previously. Karunanidhi midnight arrest in which Karunanidhi, Stalin, Maran, and others were arrested and charged in the flyover scam. This was widely considered to be an act of political vendetta, as the FIR or police complaint was lodged on Friday night and the arrests were carried out only a few hours later on Saturday morning. While the arrests took place in 2001, the chargesheet was only filed in court four years later, in 2005.
In Tamil Nadu, Stalin played a crucial role in the campaigning and the eventual victory of the DMK-Allied-United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the 2009 general election
''As a matter of policy, I don 't believe in bribing voters. We can only get people's support when we tell them about what we have done for them and what we plan to do for them. Our party is doing just that.'' (M.K. Stalin)
Opponents of the DMK, some political observers and the DMK party's senior-most members criticise that Karunanidhi is trying to promote Stalin as an attempt to start a political dynasty along the lines of the Nehru-Gandhi family. However, DMK sources and political supporters deny this and say Stalin has come up on his own merit.
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 contested and became Chennai's 44th mayor but the 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 his rise is slow and steady. They further point out that Karunanidhi has even expelled his other sons M.K. Muthu and M.K. Azhagiri when they were guilty of wrongdoing. He won in election 2011 as an MLA.On 3rd January 2013 M.K. Karunanidhi named him as his heir apparent, thus ending a long time confusion about who would take over the party reins after Karunanidhi's death.
