M Karunanidhi: The Grand Old Man of Tamil Nadu politics hunts for sixth term as Chief Minister

M Karunanidhi is 91 years old and confined to a wheel chair. Age has slipped a slight slur into his rasping voice, an icon by itself in Tamil Nadu politics. There is no more pepper in the hair now, only salt. As he makes a bid for his sixth term as Chief Minister, Karunanidhi is the closest thing to a permanent fixture that the state's political scene has had.He contested for the first time in 1957, which was only the second time that elections were held in India. He has never lost an election, even when his party has been wiped out. That is remarkable, considering he has contested in every Assembly election, except in 1984 when he was already a member of Tamil Nadu's Legislative Council.Every election in the past decade has been touted as 'the last election Karunanidhi will probably face', but the DMK patriarch continues to give his son Stalin an experience he can share with Britain's Prince Charles - a seemingly never-ending wait.Karunanidhi faces tough odds this election. His party continues to suffer from the taint of alleged strong-arm tactics and land grabbing by party satraps. This perception, combined with the spectacle of the 2G Scam has made it near impossible for the DMK to find allies. This means that the DMK again finds itself stuck with the Congress, which is the only other party in Tamil Nadu that no one is willing to ally with.Karunanidhi also finds it unable to move the narrative of his political life beyond the infighting among his numerous family members who have come to dominate his party. His sons, daughter and grandnephew all have their own outsize ambitions and little cliques. Their dominance has meant that even their offspring attract bowed heads from members of what had for long been a cadre-based party.All this compounds the nonagenarian's problems. The DMK has never performed well electorally without allies. Karunanidhi now has to pin his hopes on anti-incumbency arising out of allegations of graft against his prime rival J Jayalalithaa and out of the allegations that her government mishandled the floods that hit the northern parts of the state just months ago.