CHENNAI: With the ceremonial inauguration of its party office in the national capital on April 2, the DMK, which is the third-largest party in the Lok Sabha behind the BJP and the Congress, is attempting to launch party president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin into the national scene.

BJP president J.P. Nadda, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and other top officials have previously been invited by DMK parliamentary party leader and former Union minister T.R. Baalu. The invitation to Amit Shah, who had previously declined to meet with a DMK team on the NEET issue, has raised a few eyebrows.

R.S. Bharathi, the Party's State Organising Secretary, maintained, however, that the invitation offered to Amit Shah was merely a courtesy. According to him, even AIADMK leaders have been invited to the event.

Stalin's national ambitions are well known, and he is preparing to lead a regional coalition against the BJP-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have been on whirlwind tours across the country meeting regional leaders in search of a possible alternative to the BJP-led NDA at the Centre, Stalin has a leg up thanks to the Congress's support for the DMK leader.

The DMK's top brass, including Baalu, is plotting to launch Stalin to national prominence. Stalin's father, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalignar Karunanidhi, had previously formed political alliances with both the NDA and the UPA, and T.R. Baalu was a key architect of these astute political manoeuvrings.

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