Karunanidhi

M. Karunanidhi was perhaps the most powerful and influential regional political leader India has ever seen – five times chief minister of Tamil Nadu, leader of the DMK for over fifty years, the man who never lost a single election and who repeatedly played Kingmaker at the national level. His relentless battle to establish Tamil nadu’s distinct linguistic and cultural identity, together with his bitter rivalry with MGR and Jayalalithaa, shaped Tamil nadu’s history for over five decades. Karunanidhi was also a towering Tamil literary figure, a radical social reformer and a brilliant administrator who helped transform his state into one of the most progressive and prosperous in India. And he had a colourful and turbulent family life – managing two wives in two households, the hostility between his two sons and the aspirations of his ambitious nephews. From this intimate biography emerges a full-blooded portrait of a multifaceted leader whose political as well as personal life was as full of action and drama as the blockbuster film scripts he wrote.