Palaniswami to launch AIADMK’s 2026 election campaign from July 7

Chennai: With at least 10 months to go before the polls, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami will launch his campaign for the 2026 assembly elections from the party’s stronghold of Coimbatore on Monday.

On Saturday, after unveiling the campaign logo featuring the AIADMK’s iconic Two Leaves election symbol with a raised fist, Palaniswami renewed his appeal to all political parties opposed to the ruling DMK to unite in order to ensure that the latter is sent packing in next year’s elections.

He also stated that the AIADMK is the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu and that he will be the alliance’s Chief Ministerial candidate. “Even (Union Home Minister) announced in April that I will be the CM face of the NDA,” Palaniswami added.

The first phase of the campaign, titled 'Makkalai Kaappom, Tamizhagathai Meetpom' (Let's Protect the People, Let's Redeem Tamil Nadu), will take Palaniswami to 38 assembly constituencies across the western, northern, and central parts of Tamil Nadu, during which he will interact with party members and the general public.

The first phase will begin on July 7 and end on July 28, after which he will cover the remaining constituencies in four or five phases. Traveling in a specially designed bus, Palaniswami will hold roadshows in all assembly segments, bake bread with cadres at the home of a party functionary, and may even stay at a cadre’s house, in a bid to galvanize the AIADMK’s core vote bank.

“This tour was on the cards for a long time. We had initially planned it for February, but it kept getting postponed due to a slew of factors. And then, we tied up with the BJP. We believe this tour will help expose the DMK government and take the AIADMK to the masses once again,” a senior AIADMK leader told DH.

Launching the tour from Coimbatore is also significant, since the AIADMK has traditionally been strong in the western region, though it suffered a setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when BJP’s K. Annamalai pushed the party to third place.

Though it is an AIADMK campaign tour, its ally BJP announced on Saturday that its senior functionaries will join Palaniswami’s tour in their respective assembly segments and districts to ensure that cadres of both parties build mutual trust ahead of the elections. Palaniswami’s tour comes amid vocal criticism from various quarters that his party hasn’t been functioning as an effective opposition, often fumbling in its criticism of the ruling government.

In response to a question about the announcement by actor Vijay, who heads the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), that he won’t ally with the BJP, Palaniswami said his desire was to see all political parties opposed to the DMK unite in one alliance to ensure there is no split in anti-government votes. “We have been openly inviting everyone to our alliance,” he said, responding to a question about Vijay’s recent announcement that he will contest the 2026 elections alone.

Palaniswami’s campaign also comes close on the heels of the ruling DMK launching a door-to-door campaign to reach about 2 crore households in the state to talk about the government’s welfare programs and to counter the BJP and its ally, AIADMK.