Mithuvel Karunananidhi who is 92 and 76 year old Mulayam Singh Yadav represent two large states in southern and northern India. The DMK chief has said that he has no intention of retiring from active politics and allowing his son, M K Stalin to take over. Mulayam Singh Yadav has however handed over the chief ministership of Uttar Pradesh to his son, Akhilesh Yadav. He can run the Samajwadi party and the government with unfettered freedom. There are however dissensions in both the DMK and the SP. First families hold power bases in both states. Ideology has taken a back seat. Power play headed by the two patriarchs dominate and family rule has been firmly established. There is no systemic approach in the two parties. Ideas have got buried and those out of the two dynasties are not allowed to raise their heads in the clashes. Dynastic leadership is challenged only by members of the dynasty. Politics has in both states become a matter of family intrigue as in Mughal times.
As a result, both the DMK and the SP have undergone a steady decline. Links have been severed by the DMK with the Dravidian movement and by the SP with the Congress Socialist Party. The original commitment to social justice and socialism as well as the projection of people’s politics have ducked their heads. Differences with the Congress, the Left and the Hindutva parties have shrunk. Advocacy of job and educational quotas, stress on political representation for backward classes and castes to widen democracy has retreated. The job has been forgotten before it is done.