Karunanidhi family

The Karunanidhi family are an Indian political family who have had considerable influence in the politics and cinema of Tamil Nadu. The most notable member of the family was M. Karunanidhi who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and was the DMK party leader from 1969 till 2018.

Karunanidhi's grandnephew Dayanidhi Maran has been the union cabinet minister for two terms, once as a Minister of Information and Technology and once as a Minister of Textiles. One of Karunanidhi's sons, M. K. Stalin, is the 7th and current chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has been a five-time MLA in Tamil Nadu Legislative assembly and a one-time deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu; another son, M. K. Alagiri, was the Minister of Chemicals in the central cabinet and also the co-ordinator for South Tamil Nadu for DMK. His daughter Kanimozhi is a Member of the Parliament in Lok Sabha. His grandnephew Kalanidhi Maran is the owner of the Sun Network, the second largest TV network in India and also Sun Pictures, a Tamil movie production company. The fourth generation of the family comprising Arivunithi, Dayanidhi Azhagiri, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Member of Legislative assembly and Arulnithi are involved in the Tamil cinema industry.

The large presence of Karunanidhi's family members both in the central government and state government has led to accusations of political nepotism.^[1][2] Two of the family members, Kanimozhi and Dayanidhi Maran, had been charged by Central Bureau of Investigation for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum case. However, CBI failed to prove charges against the two, and the Delhi High Court acquitted both the accused.^[3] The fourth generation of the family is accused of using political clout in their favour in the Tamil cinema industry.^[4]