Stalin elected as DMK President unopposed

Chennai: M.K.Stalin on Tuesday was elected as the DMK President unopposed at the party's General Council meeting held here.

Stalin, 65, becomes the second President of one of the oldest political party in the country, a post held by his late father and five times Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi for 49 years.

The election for party President was necessitated after Karunanidhi died here on August 7.

DMK General Secretary K.Anbazhagan said that 1,307 party officials seconded Stalin's candidature.

Senior leader Duraimurugan was also elected unopposed as the party's Treasurer.

The General Council, before announcing the news, condoled the deaths of Karunanidhi, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, party cadres who died in shock after hearing Karunanidhi's death, the anti-Sterlite copper smelter plant protesters who were killed in the police firing in Tuticorin in May and also the victims of the floods in Kerala.