Small screen is big news in TN politics

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu’s politico-television culture has breached a new frontier with the announcement of the launch of a channel named after DMK president and chief minister M Karunanidhi or ‘Kalaignar’. The TV medium, which has been used by the two main parties in the state — DMK and AIADMK — to slug it out in the political arena, is now pegged for establishing supremacy within the same party.

With Mr Karunanidhi’s family closing ranks in the wake of an opinion poll in a Maran family-owned SUN group daily, the spotlight is on the TV wars between the established SUN TV and upcoming RAJ TV, from whose stable the new channel, ‘Kalaignar TV’, will be launched on August 15.

With SUN TV, whose logo is the DMK’s ‘rising sun’, being the established market leader in the field, Mr Karunanidhi’s decision to back a new channel named after him from a rival media company is a decisively political move. The clout enjoyed by SUN TV and the Maran family-controlled Sumangali Cable has been steadily growing with the rise of the DMK in the state. SUN TV has been an important political tool for the dravidian party in attacking the opposition AIADMK, and Ms Jayalalithaa’s party has had to strike back through Jaya TV.

In the wake of the falling out with the Marans, Mr Karunanidhi’s bid to maintain a media edge for his family through the creation of a new television entity has had its effect on the stock market. Raj TV’s shares touched an all-time high of Rs 288.30 per share on Tuesday on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), meanwhile the shares of Kalanidhi Maran’s SUN TV fell seven per cent or over Rs 101 to Rs 1,370. The rise in the fortunes of RAJ TV is expected to be aided by the DMK which holds the Union IT and Telecom portfolio at the Centre (the ministry was held by Mr Dayanidhi Maran until the recent fracas over the opinion poll on the question of succession within the DMK).

Officially, however, Mr Karunanidhi denies that the ‘Kalaignar’ TV will be run by the DMK. Asked by reporters about the launch of ‘Kalaignar TV’, Mr Karunanidhi said there was a link between Kalaignar and the DMK, “But there is no connection between the DMK and Kalaignar TV,” he joked. But that apart, that the DMK means serious business is clear from a purported notice given to the Marans to clear out the SUN offices from Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters. Though Mr Karunanidhi also refuted this, it is emerging that SUN TV will no longer be the favoured vehicle for the party.

However, it is not just Tamil Nadu politics that is characterised by a high level of media management through control of popular TV channels. In Kerala if the ruling CPM has stake in Kairali TV, the opposition Congress is trying to enter the electronic media space through its yet-to-be-launched Jai Hind channel. In Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Reddy government’s offensive against the Eenaadu group owned by Margadarsi Finance is said to be driven by the group’s owner, Ramoji Rao’s, alleged pro-TTDP leanings.