No 'Moondram Kalaignar', call me 'Chinnavar': Udhay tells cadres

CHENNAI: The DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin sought a new name, “Chinnavar” (the younger one) for his cadres to address him.

Tamil Nadu has been a land of epithets. In that list of leaders who have fondly received bynames and have created their own bynames, the DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin sought a new name, “Chinnavar” (the younger one) for his cadres to address him.

Addressing a meeting to honour senior party cadres in Thanjavur, where the party men had raised slogans addressing him as “Ilam thalaivar” (young leader), “Moondram Kalaignar” (third Kalaignar), and “Chinnavar”, Udhayanidhi Stalin humbly said he’d prefer the moniker “Chinnavar” and refrained them from addressing him with any other by names than that.

Interestingly, "Chinnavar" was associated with former Chief Minister and DMK's arch-rival MG Ramachandran or MGR. Since MGR was the younger brother of MG Chakkarapani, the former was addressed to as "Chinnavar".

On the occasion, he distributed cash rewards to senior partymen who had devoted their hard work towards the betterment of the DMK party for several decades. He also obliged the senior cadres to help the party win the next parliamentary elections, as well.

Addressing another meeting in Kumbakonam on the same day, where he was asked to lay the foundation stone for constructing a new party office. He said that though, he had no beliefs in poojas, for the sake of the organisers and to cause heartburn to the rivals, he attended the function. He sought to do some explanation to uphold his atheist credentials.

Also, Udhayanidhi criticised the BJP government whose word on the construction of the Madurai AIIMS college has not been kept, yet. The foundation brick that he had laid is still there as a brick, said Udhayanidhi, sarcastically, adding more unkept words by the BJP including the deposit of Rs.15 lakhs in the public account.