Chennai, Jul 18 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Youth Welfare and Sports Development Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin is likely to be soon elevated to the post of Deputy Chief Minister, DMK sources said.

Highly placed sources in the ruling DMK told IANS that Udhayanidhi Stalin will be made the Deputy Chief Minister before his father and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin travels to the US on August 22.

Udhayanidhi Stalin, the President of the DMK's Youth Wing, was included in the M.K. Stalin cabinet in December 2022 while the DMK government had assumed office in May 2021.

Stalin was also anointed as the Deputy Chief Minister in 2009 when his father M. Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister, catapulting him into the big league of Tamil Nadu politics and Udhayanidhi Stalin is also likely to follow in his father's footsteps.

Sources in the DMK told IANS that Udhayanidhi Stalin will be the face of the DMK in the 2026 Assembly elections as Stalin is unlikely to contest.

There was a move to appoint Udhayanidhi Stalin as the Deputy Chief Minister immediately after the Lok Sabha poll results were declared. However, the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy, which led to 65 people losing their lives, had led the DMK and Stalin to defer the plans for elevation and pass on the mantle of the state and government to the Karunanidhi family's third generation.