CHENNAI: DMK youth wing secretary and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has launched a statewide tour, starting with an interaction with the party’s grassroots functionaries in Kancheepuram on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, DMK president Chief Minister MK Stalin exhorted party brass to work tirelessly till the 2026 Assembly election and instructed them to hold meetings at all 68,000 polling booths on September 15, party founder CN Annadurai’s birthday.
Udhayanidhi’s tour is aimed at strengthening the DMK’s party structure before he embarks on a full-fledged campaign for the 2026 polls, sources said. He will meet DMK’s ward, village and booth-level functionaries in all the districts. Sources said he will also honour those functionaries who performed well in the Oraniyil Tamil Nadu, the party’s membership drive, by presenting them with shawls.
Sources also said printed forms will be used to collect opinions, suggestions and demands of the functionaries. Completed forms will be collected in a box at the meeting venue, and Udhayanidhi will review some of the forms and interact with functionaries at every district.
Meanwhile, at the meeting with district secretaries held online on Tuesday, Stalin said, “Work. Forget hunger, sleep and rest. This is the only thing I want from you to establish the Dravidian model 2.0 government.”
“Before we meet at the Mupperum Vizha conference in Karur on September 17, party functionaries should conduct meetings at all 68,000 booths on September 15 by bringing together the families enrolled in Oraniyil Tamil Nadu. Booth-level agents and booth committee members must organise these meetings at their respective booths,” the CM said.
He also added that the participants have to take a pledge at the meetings to ‘save Tamil soil, language, and dignity.’ Further, Stalin told the functionaries to hold Oraniyil TN public meetings at every party district unit on September 20.
“The prevailing pro-incumbency should be sustained till the Assembly election and leveraged. Functionaries should work hard on the field. All of you should forget the word ‘rest’,” Stalin told them in a serious tone.