Chennai: With an eye fixed on the 2026 meeting elections, the DMK has launched an overt and thoroughly calibrated political push into the western belt of Tamil Nadu, notably Coimbatore (lengthy seen as an AIADMK stronghold and an rising BJP stronghold), combining caste lobbying, regional symbolism and welfare politics.
Though the DMK got here to energy in 2021 by successful 133 out of 234 constituencies within the state, it may solely win in 24 out of 68 constituencies in western Tamil Nadu. In Coimbatore, the DMK didn’t win a single seat, whereas the AIADMK received 9 seats and the BJP received one.
Whereas the social gathering has began native outreach packages and integration drives since 2021, current investments of political capital within the western area, reminiscent of naming a flyover in Coimbatore after businessman GD Naidu and appointing D Srinivasan, managing director of Coimbatore restaurant chain Sree Annapurna, as member of the Tamil Nadu State Meals Board, have caught the eye of the Naidu group within the area.
Equally, DMK insiders within the western area say that the current reshuffle inside the social gathering on the district degree has created some buzz on the bottom, with former minister V. Senthil Balaji, who belongs to the Gounder group, turning into the minister in command of Coimbatore district and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin attending a gathering of Raj Gounder’s Puthiya Dravida Kazhagam Get together.
A DMK functionary from Coimbatore’s Singanallur constituency informed ThePrint that the shift in assist for these two communities has materialized within the months following the Sabah polls.
“Now we have been working with native individuals for a few years, however ever since a few of our leaders left the social gathering within the late Nineties, now we have at all times been seen as an anti-progressive caste social gathering, an anti-gounder social gathering. However now individuals have realized that our social gathering does every little thing for everybody, treats all castes equally and offers illustration to all communities. So, it is a change,” stated a DMK employee from Singanallur constituency.
Whereas the DMK’s symbolic actions over the previous 12 months are believed to have helped it acquire assist from the Gounder group, political commentator Raveendran Duraisamy identified that the change began in early 2025.
“Whereas the DMK received the 2021 native physique polls and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the actual change occurred after the Erode East by-polls held in February 2025.The DMK on the one hand took a pro-gounder stand and brazenly supported the local people. “We’re strengthening the non-gounder group via welfare measures and symbolic and strategic actions with out collaborating in occasions. That is serving to us put together for the 2026 parliamentary elections,” Raveendran Duraisamy informed ThePrint.
The social gathering, which as soon as had a robust base within the western area, misplaced floor within the Nineties after leaders reminiscent of Erode A. Ganesamoothy, Tirupur Duraisamy and M. Kanappan joined the MDMK launched by Vaiko in 1994.
The Western technique depends closely on political symbolism and caste alignment, however it’s also supported by an intensive micro-targeted welfare framework that the social gathering believes can convert outreach into votes.
The DMK has rolled out a sequence of region-specific schemes concentrating on ladies, tribals, minorities and fishermen. Packages such because the Trkudi Aintinai initiative for tribal livelihoods, land possession subsidy for SC/ST ladies, microcredit for girls fishermen, housing for Narikurava communities, and scholarships for minority women kind the spine of this technique.
Underneath the Adi Dravidar Tribal Welfare Division’s Torkudi Aintinai program, the variety of beneficiaries elevated from 1,090 in 2023-24 to 7,564 in 2025-26 because the allocation elevated from Rs 5.59 billion to Rs 1.78 billion.
DMK will increase vote share by 5% in West Tennessee
Political analyst N. Satyamoorthy stated the social gathering’s current electoral success confirms its deliberate western regional technique. “In 2024, the DMK elevated its vote share (within the western area) by about 5 share factors and was profitable in municipal elections and by-polls,” Satyamoorthy stated, noting that it was the chief minister’s broader political plan to make sure that communities within the area didn’t really feel taken as a right.
“They’re weaving voters into the system. The message is that no group is important,” he stated, referring to focused outreach between dominant and subordinate teams inside the Gounder group.
DMK functionaries in Erode district additionally recalled that in 2009, the then DMK authorities launched 3 per cent reservation inside the scheduled caste quota for the Arunthatyar group, which is now serving to within the western area.
“Ever because the Supreme Court docket upheld the legality of reservation in August 2024, it has change into a lot simpler to succeed in out to the Arunthatyar group (Scheduled Caste) that supported the AIADMK within the western area, particularly in Erode district the place former Speaker P. Dhanavar was elected within the 2016 meeting elections,” a DMK functionary in Erode district informed ThePrint.
Based on political analyst Satyamoorthy, two components will dominate the 2026 parliamentary elections – personalised micro-targeting with quantifiable advantages, and an ideological debate between Hindutva and Dravidian or anti-Hindutva politics, a framework that at the moment consists of debates on secularism, language, federalism, well being and employment techniques.
However he warned that welfare measures have been beginning to change into saturated and will pose dangers. “The monetary help of Rs 1,000 for girls has change into a part of the family price range. The query voters at the moment are asking is, ‘What extra do I’ve?’ Individuals are comfy, however they see these advantages with no consideration,” he stated, pointing to rising public debt and the absence of a robust opposition as new political challenges.
Nonetheless, the DMK appears decided to make sure that it doesn’t stay outdoors its increasing electoral map, even in areas as soon as thought-about politically distant.
A DMK spokesperson stated they don’t seem to be working for a selected caste however for all individuals within the state, together with those that didn’t vote for the social gathering. “Whereas taking oath as CM, our chief stated that we are going to work so exhausting that even those that didn’t vote for us will remorse not voting for us. Now we have ensured that each particular person within the state is empowered and there may be progress in each area and each sector,” the spokesperson informed ThePrint.
(Edited by Vinny Mishra)
Additionally learn: Draft SIR in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat: 1.71 billion names deleted, Chennai has highest variety of deletions in TN
