When Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin hoists the tricolour at the Chief Secretariat on Sunday on the occasion of the 75th Independence Day, he will be of double delight - commemorating the national event as the Chief Minister for the first time and successfully marking his 100 days of reign. During these celebrations, MK Stalin can give a pat for himself that he had some achievements in his store with the fact that there is a lot to be accomplished. 

Stalin's trajectory for the top post was hard as when he started the election campaign, everything wasn't in his favour and he was in a need to push himself into the political stream as the next face of the state when Tamil Nadu was witnessing the first assembly polls since the demise of political giants Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa. From finalizing the alliance, choosing the candidates, to captaining the party, he had a rough and tough path in his drive to become the successor of Karunanidhi, both in the party and in the rule. While Karunanidhi's voice had left a void in the election campaign, it has equally pushed Stalin to become an inevitable force of the Dravidian movement. 

Along with the blessings of Karunanidhi, Stalin was shouldered with a slew of responsibilities and challenges and he was precise that the victory won't put him to the bed of roses, rather it will be of walking on fire each day. The Covid-19 pandemic, the ailing economy, pain and distress, and growing financial deficits, all waited to welcome him to the Office after his victory. He aimed to win 200 seats in the assembly elections, the highest for the party by far, but the DMK alliance had eventually ended up with 159 seats, close to the majority of predictions. The anti-incumbency wave against the Edappadi Palaniswami regime and an averse mindset against the BJP in the state were among the factors that elevated the DMK to power along with the typical fashion of seeking a change in the reign.

The voters didn't vanish the ADMK, but they had placed the party as a watchdog for MK Stalin's administration and with that, Edappadi Palaniswami, who was the accidental Chief Minister, had now become a full-fledged opposition leader in the current assembly. Powered by the victory, MK Stalin had on May 7 sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and his tenure has begun with the surprise elements. His council of ministers was distinct that it has included several new and promising faces to meet and tackle the problems and challenges that lie before his administration. The DMK had issued hundreds of poll promises in the elections and he entered the office with the awareness of the raging Covid-19 pandemic and to hunt by the criticisms if his government fails to deliver the promises and spends by just counting the days. 

The second wave of the pandemic was rampant when he assumed the post and while knowing that he would have many more sleepless nights, his administration had pushed the measures to contain the pandemic and to have a proper flow of medical infrastructure to the state. He had imposed a complete lockdown on his third day in the office and his government had then split the districts into three tiers based on the severity of the pandemic spread. Stalin has placed his trusted aides in some of the powerful portfolios and appointed reputed bureaucrat Irai Anbu IAS as the Chief Secretary to the government. While the marathon man Ma Subramanian was tasked to lead the health ministry, alumni of MIT and doctorate Palanivel Thiagarajan was appointed as the Finance Minister. 

From establishing a renewed friendship with the Union government, the Tamil Nadu government had demanded the Central ruling BJP government to win its right from pressurizing the Union government to release the GST dues to urging it to intervene and stop the Karnataka government's efforts to construct the Mekedatu dam across the Cauvery river. Stalin had also appointed a special officer to take care of the petitions that were received through 'Ungal Thoguthiyil Muthalvar' (Chief Minister in your constituency) that he promised to fulfil within 100 days of his office. Besides campaigning for Tamil, he also appointed C Sylendra Babu IPS as the Director-General of Police. Let's take a look at some of his major announcements in his 100 days in the office, 

• Rs 4,000 was provided to the Rice ration cardholders as the Covid-19 relief fund. Announcing free travel for women in the local public transport. He declared media persons as the frontline workers and provided 14 different provisions for the rice ration cardholders through the Public Distribution System. 
• Free local public transport for transgenders and disabled people and government quarters for Tamil poets. Rs 4,000 Covid-19 relief fund for 13,000 Srilankan refugees who are living outside of the refugee camps. 
• Rs 5 lakh fixed deposit fund for the children who lost their parents due to Covid-19 and providing free education to them till their graduation. Government jobs for the family member of the victims who died in the Thoothukudi police firing in 2018.
• Forming a committee to study the impact of NEET on the backward students in the state. Conducting poojas in temples in Tamil and allocating funds for excavation projects. Forming an Economic committee with five economic bigheads including former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan. 
• Launching 'Makkal Thedi Maruthuvam', which is a first-of-its-kind initiative in India, with the aim of taking the medical facilities to the doorsteps of people. MK Stalin's government has become the first government to release the white paper on the finances and it was released earlier this week with the citation that people have the right to know the financial condition of the state. 
• Presenting the first budget for agriculture in Tamil Nadu and carving history by appointing non-Brahmins as priests in the Hindu temples. On Saturday, the Chief Minister had provided the appointment orders for 58 priests from the non-Brahmin community. 
• On Friday, the Tamil Nadu government had presented its revised budget in which it has decreased the petrol price by reducing the state petrol tax for Rs 3 per litre in the albeit of incurring over Rs 1,600 crore loss. 

As MK Stalin progresses further, he has a lot to accomplish in the coming years. His stand on NEET had become the Achilles' heel, making the opposition parties to score as the DMK had promised to repeal the NEET in the state after coming to power. However, the DMK government has later asked the students to prepare for the NEET exam for this year amid forming a committee to study the impact of the national exam and its hasty introduction. The DMK and BJP had held a legal battle over the committee and the ADMK had also protested against the Stalin regime for not keeping up the promise. The DMK government still has many more to do from reducing the diesel price, providing subsidies for cooking cylinders, and providing Rs 1000 emoluments for the homemakers.

These were among the pile of promises of the DMK during the elections and as the clock is ticking for the local body polls in nine districts, it is imperative for DMK that it has to at least deliver some of these key promises to have a flow of power. While the young ministers are tasked to lead important portfolios, MK Stalin has a national obligation on the political corridor. The year 2021 has been a debacle for BJP and its ring-wing outfits as the nation had witnessed the rise of faces that would irk the Central ruling party including Pinarayi Vijayan, Mamata Banerjee, and MK Stalin. These three are among the inevitable leaders preventing Modi from saffronising India. In his Chief Ministerial term, Stalin would go through the 2024 Lok Sabha polls before which he must rise to his national prominence. 

In June, Stalin had written to 12 non-BJP Chief Ministers to collectively urge the Modi government for a loan moratorium. It was his first progressive move to bring the non-BJP Chief Ministers under one roof to voice for and secure the state's autonomy and already Mamata Banerjee had begun her tours to build a third front to defeat Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it won't be a big surprise if Stalin becomes a pivotal face in the front and it will be a prospect for him to rejuvenate ties with the national leaders who were close to Karunanidhi. Though 100 days would be a short span to measure the reign, it must be noted that Stalin had already begun showing signs of transformation through his reforms. His first 100 days would give a big boost to the government to keep driving towards a challenging future. One of the factors where the DMK can score big is drawing down the number of state-run liquor shops and the DMK regime should refrain from advocating in favour of the TASMAC shops under the guise of generating revenue. 

On Saturday, the Tamil Nadu government had presented its first agricultural budget and while speaking at the assembly concerning completing his 100 days, Stalin said, "We have just started. We will gradually fulfil all our promises. Let no one have any doubt and if we list out our 100-day achievement, it will take three hours. We have restored the faith of the people and our financial position is in a little critical state. I won't call it my government. It's our government and I thank all those who had appreciated the government on its 100th day." His speech has come after the alliance party MLAs had lauded the ruling DMK in the assembly. "I assure you that we will work doubly hard in the next six months to win the confidence of those who didn't have the mind to appreciate us", Stalin added. 

He said that saving people's lives and understanding their plight is the biggest achievement of this government. He said, "Ambulance sirens could always be heard during the first month when this government came to power. That sound did not let us rest. The work done by this government in these past 100 days is appreciated by all and this should continue forever. These 100 days have given us hope that we will be able to get back the lost rights and glory of the state. I will not give false statements that all the promises are fulfilled. They are being fulfilled and will be completed."