TASMAC raids to be political headache for DMK?

Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) intensification of its probe into the state-run liquor retailer and a cash cow for the state government Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation couldn’t have come at a worse time for the ruling DMK as it prepares for the crucial 2026 assembly polls, which is likely to be a multi-cornered intense contest.

The ED investigation targeting the top brass of TASMAC – its managing director S Visakan IAS was grilled for about 20 hours over two days following extensive searches at his office and residence – last week has rattled the DMK government. It had approached the Madras High Court seeking to declare the raids at TASMAC headquarters in March as “illegal”, but the court dismissed the petitions and gave the green signal for the ED to continue with its investigation.

Through last week’s raids, the ED has now extended the probe to Akash Bhaskaran and Ratheesh Velu, who is considered to be close to top DMK functionaries, a few contractors, and an executive of a bottling firm linked to TASMAC. Bhaskaran and Ratheesh are suspected of acting as conduits for laundering unaccounted money linked to TASMAC, while the latter is widely believed to have escaped from the country before the searches by the ED.

The raids come just a fortnight after the DMK government entered the last year of its tenure and amid repeated assertions by Chief Minister M K Stalin that his party would script history by winning the 2026 elections.

Though there has been no official statement from the ED regarding last week’s raids, the principal opposition AIADMK and BJP have alleged that Ratheesh and Bhaskaran are close aides of deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin. They have also questioned the DMK’s “silence.”

The AIADMK has also launched a social media campaign ‘Yaar Antha Thambi (Brother)’, tearing into the DMK and asking it to explain the first family’s ties with Ratheesh and Bhaskaran among others. Though it is believed that a majority of the FIRs that the ED has taken cognizance of were lodged during the 2016-2021 tenure of the AIADMK government, the party is brazening it out by laying the blame on the DMK dispensation, which has merely termed the raids as “politically motivated.”

DMK is already facing a host of legal woes with over half-a-dozen senior leaders under the radar of agencies like the ED, CBI, and Income Tax department, while four ministers have been asked to stand in trial once again in disproportionate assets (DA) cases by the Madras High Court, which has nullified the orders of the lower courts discharging them.

TASMAC, whose revenue in 2024-2025 fiscal stood at Rs 48,344 crore, has been at the receiving end for the past few years due to allegations of holding unaccounted cash, inflating its expenses, and potential kickbacks to secure supply orders.

“This wasn’t completely unexpected. We know that ED and CBI would get active as election approaches in TN. The issue is we have to keep countering the charges of opposition parties for over a year. As the election approaches, the attack on us will be mounted from different quarters. We have to be cautious,” a senior DMK leader told DH.

Senior journalist Maalan Narayanan said the raids have given much-needed fodder to the AIADMK and the BJP to target the DMK ahead of the elections and that the refusal of Bhaskaran and Ratheesh to engage with the ED leads to further suspicion, though there is no flinching evidence so far to link them with the DMK’s first family.

“The DMK is likely to rake up the Centre-State relationship and federalism to divert attention from the ED raids. But it is to be seen how much ice it cuts with the people. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, people don’t always vote against a government just because of corruption charges. They also see the performance,” Narayanan added.