The DMK's wait ends, successor dons the mantle of expectations SECTIONS Share Synopsis Strategists had consciously put Stalin at the centre of DMK’s campaign. “His name has never resonated so much as it did in the past six months,” says the party’s political strategist Prashant Kishor. “Earlier, he was ‘Kalaignar’s son’, ‘former mayor’ … now… just Stalin, the person, the leader.” (This story originally appeared in on May 03, 2021)Soon after polling on April 6, DMK chief M K Stalin told the electorate to take precautions against Covid, wrote a letter to PM Modi demanding universal vaccination, and announced there would be no lockdown in Tamil Nadu after May 2 (counting day). He was already behaving like a chief minister.