Chennai: Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin is preparing the DMK for the 2026 Assembly elections and has already handpicked full-time workers for all 234 constituencies.
The scion of the Karunanidhi clan, Udhayanidhi recently conducted a meeting with the party’s youth wing office-bearers to discuss the 2026 Assembly elections. He also heads the youth wing of the DMK.
It may be recalled that DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has already announced that the party would win 200 Assembly seats in the 2026 elections.
In the present Assembly, the DMK has 133 legislators, and the party president wants the cadres and leaders to commence work towards winning 200 seats.
A team of party leaders, led by Udhayanidhi Stalin also includes state ministers Thangam Thenarasu, E.V. Velu, and party organising secretary R.S. Bharathi. This team will be in charge of the elections, with Udhayanidhi overseeing day-to-day operations.
According to senior party leaders, Udhayanidhi has appointed full-time workers for all the Assembly constituencies, with half of them drawn from those who worked full-time during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, which resulted in a stunning victory for the DMK-led INDIA bloc, winning all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat from the Union Territory of Puducherry.
In a recent high-profile meeting held at the party headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, Udhayanidhi criticised party leaders who did not work properly during the Lok Sabha elections, even after being assigned responsibilities for each Assembly constituency.
Currently, all 234 full-timers in charge of each Assembly constituency have been selected after a careful screening of their potential and with input from the party’s local leadership. The full-timers in charge of each constituency are not residents of the constituencies assigned to them.
DMK organising secretary and senior leader R.S. Bharathi, who is part of the core committee for selecting DMK candidates for the 2026 Assembly elections, said, “Our leader and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Thiru M.K. Stalin, has already set a target of winning 200 seats in the 2026 elections, and the party’s organisational machinery is fully activated to achieve this goal.”
He also mentioned that a team of senior leaders, including Udhayanidhi Stalin, is managing the day-to-day affairs concerning the elections.
–IANS