CHENNAI: The DMK has scaled down the role of its in-house political consultancy, Populous Empowerment Network (PEN), and is increasingly relying on its organisational structure to drive political planning and electoral strategy following defeat in the Assembly election.
Much of the planning, constituency feedback and coordination that was earlier handled by PEN, founded by party president MK Stalin’s son-in-law Sabareesan, is now being directly undertaken by the party.
Highly placed sources in DMK told TNIE that the firm has reduced its workforce considerably and retained only a core team of around 40 members. The team is now largely focused on monitoring party activities and holding review meetings to analyse what went wrong both on the ground and on digital platforms, sources said.
“During the election, there were close to 500 people in the team working for the party on constituency management, social media management and media management. During non-election times, the strength used to be between 160- 200. However, after the election, except the team leads and senior most people, all of them were asked to leave,” a PEN team lead who survived the layoff said.
“They (PEN) also took responsibility for the poll defeat, but the party realised that overreliance on the firm caused distress among the party workers and they felt that their voices were unheard. Now, the party has decided to reduce the role of PEN,” said a functionary in the party’s youth wing.
The DMK had previously engaged election strategist Sunil Kanugolu for the 2016 polls and later worked with I-PAC for the 2021 campaign. PEN, founded in 2022, managed the party’s successful 2024 Lok Sabha campaign and was said to be involved in building the image of then CM MK Stalin and the government. For the 2026 polls, the party had hired PEN, I-PAC and political strategist Robbin Sharrma of Showtime Consultancy.
Sources said the party’s IT wing has also seen a drop in its operational role compared to when the DMK was in office. “The IT wing played an extensive role in digital outreach, social media campaigns, governance communication and data analytics.
With the party now in the Opposition, many of these activities have scaled down. The focus has now shifted towards exposing the ruling party,” an IT wing functionary told TNIE. While the wing continues to function, its manpower, including designers, editors and other professionals, has been reduced.
“As MK Stalin has constituted a committee to suggest restructuring the party, the fate of PEN as well as the operation of the IT wing, its strategies, its structure and all will be decided based on the committee’s suggestion,” a senior DMK leader said.
