CHENNAI: DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday said the 2026 Assembly election would be a battle to “protect Tamil Nadu from the BJP alliance,” just as the 2021 election was fought to “rescue the state from the slavish AIADMK.”
He was addressing around 2,500 party functionaries at ‘Yen Vakkuchavadi Vetri Vakkuchavadi’ (My polling booth, a victory booth) programme in Mahabalipuram on measures to tackle Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and to devise a booth-level strategy.
“The BJP’s daydream will not become a reality on this soil as long as the DMK exists. Knowing this, they are trying new shortcuts. The ECI has announced the implementation of the SIR in Tamil Nadu.
Their calculation is that if votes of the working-class people, Scheduled Castes, minorities, and women are removed through SIR, the BJP and its ally AIADMK can win,” Stalin said. “Unable to win elections by directly reaching out to the people, they have planned to win by snatching away the people’s voting rights.”
Recalling that the DMK had already urged the ECI to either drop the SIR or conduct it properly with adequate time, Stalin said the party would “confront this anti-democratic move legally and on the ground.” We have the strength to do so, he added.
Stalin urged party functionaries to remain vigilant throughout the revision process and ensure that all genuine voters are included in the rolls.
Taking aim at the AIADMK, Stalin said the party had “mortgaged its interests” to the BJP. “So it will not have time to worry about the people’s rights. It is therefore up to the DMK cadre to protect the voting rights of the people at every polling booth,” he stated.
He further said, “The people as well as the AIADMK cadre themselves do not like this alliance with BJP. No other party is joining their alliance. Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami has been saying that VCK, left parties and Congress are joining their front, but nobody does. People also do not trust his words.”
Stalin instructed his party functionaries to conduct separate meetings at all 68,000 polling booth every evening by coordinating with cadre from all wings of DMK and directed them to fix a target for each booth.
He also asked them to send the target details of every booth to him through district secretaries. “After reviewing the details, I will personally make a phone call and enquire about them,” he told the functionaries.