Poll strategists back in demand in Tamil Nadu as parties gear up for Assembly elections

DMK has roped in the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and Showtime Consultancy while AIADMK settled on Pramanya Strategy Consulting.

Chennai: With election fever catching on in Tamil Nadu, even though the polls are at least eight months away, major political parties in the state, including the DMK and AIADMK, have enlisted the services of consultancy firms to devise political strategies and campaign plans for their leaders.

DMK, the ruling party, has roped in the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and Showtime Consultancy, owned by Robbin Sharma, through its in-house firm, Populus Empowerment Network (PEN), which successfully handled the 2024 elections.

Separately, another strategist, Sunil Kanugolu’s aides, are advising Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s team.

I-PAC, then led by ace political strategist Prashant Kishor, was credited with the DMK’s comeback in 2021, while Robbin worked for the TDP and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) in the 2024 Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra respectively.

Tamil Nadu is likely to face a four-cornered contest in the April-May 2026 Assembly polls among DMK, AIADMK, TVK, and NTK.

AIADMK, the principal opposition party, after talks with I-PAC and Kishor among others, has finally settled on Sravanth D and Hari H of the Hyderabad-based Pramanya Strategy Consulting. The firm had worked for Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena in the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

“Sravanth’s team has started working for us. They will be with us until the elections are over. We hope the firm will help us devise strategies to reach out to the people to vote for the AIADMK. We expect the strategy firm to help us increase our presence on social media platforms,” a senior AIADMK leader told DH.

The leader added that the AIADMK took some time to finalise a strategy firm for the 2026 elections because most strategists were “snatched” by the DMK, which, according to him, is “flooded” with such experts. “They didn’t want any firm to advise us. But we have roped in a team that has a good success rate. Hiring political consultants has become the need of the hour, though it is the cadres who get us votes,” he added.

Actor-politician Vijay has been working with John Arokiasamy, a political strategist who had previously worked for Congress and PMK, for his Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK). His party colleague, Aadhav Arjuna, also owns a political consultancy firm, Voice of Commons.

Both Dravidian major parties kept political strategists away when they were led by the charismatic M Karunanidhi (DMK) and J Jayalalithaa (AIADMK), but things changed dramatically after their deaths in 2018 and 2016 respectively.

Current DMK President M K Stalin was the first political leader in Tamil Nadu to hire a political strategist, Sunil Kanugolu, in 2014. Though his strategy failed in the 2016 polls, leading to the AIADMK’s successive government, it succeeded in 2019. Since then, the party has depended on political strategy firms and formed PEN, believing DMK needed such a firm to plan effectively.

Sources said I-PAC has been working for the DMK since February 2025, playing a key role in the party’s campaign against the three-language policy and delimitation. “

While PEN is our in-house agency, we work with I-PAC and Robbin Sharma because the 2026 elections are very critical for us and the state. We will leave no stone unturned to win this time,” a DMK leader said.