Chennai: Setting an ambitious target of winning 200 seats for the party-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) in the 2026 assembly elections, DMK President M K Stalin on Friday made a passionate appeal to his cadres to work for the next two years with a “single-point agenda” to bring his government back to power.
In his speech at a meeting of the district secretaries, Stalin told party functionaries and cadres to ensure that the welfare programs of the DMK government led by him turned into votes for the party. Though he is scheduled to leave for the US to “attract investments” on August 27, Stalin told the meeting that he would continue to monitor the progress of the election work even while he is away from Chennai.
By promising to work even while he is abroad, Stalin also sent out a clear message to his critics claiming that he was “unwell”, and his US visit could have “something to do with his health.” The Chief Minister spoke in detail about the landslide win of the SPA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections decimating the alliances led by AIADMK and BJP and told his partymen that there is no doubt in the DMK returning to power if cadres continue to work with the same enthusiasm.
“We will have to prepare to face the elections. For the next two years, we should work keeping in mind the assembly elections. While responding to criticism, we should also take our achievements to people’s forum. The target of winning 200 seats is not an election gimmick. We have done so much work for the people,” Stalin said.
“The government’s schemes are devised in a manner that every household in the state gets benefitted from them. The welfare schemes that have reached people should convert into votes. To achieve this, groundwork is crucial and we should begin working from today,” the CM added.
Fresh from its Lok Sabha performance in which it won all 39 seats, the DMK has set a target of winning 200 seats in the 2026 assembly polls. Two years away, the elections will be a crowded affair with the promised entry of actor Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), making the polls a multi-cornered contest.
For now, the state has three alliances led by the DMK, AIADMK, and BJP, with Naam Tamizhar Katchi, a Tamil nationalist party, and TVK planning to contest alone.
The DMK has already begun its work for the 2026 assembly elections by constituting a coordination committee with Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi as one of its members to suggest organizational changes and devise strategies for the polls. The coordination committee has so far met twice and discussed their deliberations with Stalin.
In the 2021 assembly polls, the DMK alliance secured a two-thirds majority in a House of 234 MLAs by winning 156 seats, leaving the remaining 75 seats to the AIADMK-BJP alliance.
On the party completing 75 years of its existence, Stalin said it was the DMK which scripted history in 1967 by becoming the first regional party to capture power in a state. “It is this party which is in government in the state today. It is an honour for all of us to function in various capacities in the party,” Stalin added.