Karunanidhi Is 93 Today And Has A Birthday Message For The Young

Chennai: DMK boss M Karunanidhi is 93 today and has a message to share. He has exhorted the youth to make "sacrifices to redeem the four pillars of democracy from rusting".

The pillars, he said in his birthday message, are "under test and face huge challenges" with "anti-democratic forces crushing all spheres of government machinery."

"Youth should struggle for democratic, socialist and secular forces to get deeper rooted," Mr Karunanidhi said.

The DMK chief will meet the party cadre and will also address a public meeting today. His party plans blood donation camps and planting saplings to celebrate Mr Karunanidhi's birthday.

Last month, Tamil Nadu bucked a three-decade trend of not electing the same party twice in a row, picking Mr Karunanidhi's arch rival J Jayalalithaa for a second straight term as chief minister.

But the DMK, which contested the assembly election in partnership with the Congress, fared much better than it had done five years ago and is the strongest opposition ever in Tamil Nadu.

The DMK won 89 seats, with ally Congress picking up eight, and reduced the margin of win of Ms Jayalalithaa's AIADMK, which has won 134 seats.

Mr Karunanidhi's party found cheer in the fact that its vote share at 40.2 was just a shade lower than the AIADMK's 41.6.  

Mr Karunanidhi had hoped for another stint as the state's chief minister, but with that not to be, has promoted his son MK Stalin to serve as Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu assembly.

Mr Karunanidhi was the leader of opposition till 2006, when the DMK was the main opposition party. However in the 2011 elections, actor Vijyakanth's DMDK became the main opposition party and Vijayakanth the Opposition leader.