Udhayanidhi Stalin slams Vijay, says 'I am not Saturday politician', asserts Congress will be with DMK

Chennai: Taking a veiled dig at actor-politician Vijay, Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Friday said he does not venture out for campaign or party work only on Saturdays and without naming TVK workers, said they had no clue about ideology.

Udhayanidhi, the DMK youth wing secretary, without directly naming the Congress party, a key ally, expressed confidence that it would continue to be part of the alliance.

The DMK leader targeted AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami and said that all that the Leader of Opposition now remembers is BJP top leader Amit Shah and that he has forgotten even AIADMK founder leader MG Ramachandran.

Udhayanidhi said he is usually on an official tour 4-5 days a week and tours on Sundays as well. "I do not come out only on every Saturday," he said to thunderous applause at a DMK party functionaries meeting here. Further, the Deputy CM said he does not look at the day of the week to do his work and covers all the districts.

Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay, who commenced his state-wide tour for the 2026 Assembly election on September 13 has so far campaigned only on Saturdays.

In the days to come, Vijay is expected to add select-Sundays also to his campaign schedule. Vijay had said that such a Saturday-only arrangement was to ensure that people were not disturbed during working days and it is also to make sure that they were approached during the weekend, when they could spare sometime.

In the workers meeting, Udhayanidhi urged cadres to put aside "little bitterness" among them and be together and function as "Kalaignar Ani (late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi's team)." For the next 6 months, office-bearers should meet people daily and the campaign should be speeded up. "Thinnai pracharam" (Door-to-door campaign) must be taken up and the DMK regime's achievements must be explained to the public.

Targeting the TVK and without naming it directly, the Deputy CM said: "Some parties have been newly floated and members of such outfits have no idea about ideology; there is no idea about what the ideology is." DMK office-bearers should, hence, campaign on the party's ideology and the sacrifices made by the party for the sake of securing state's rights and the Tamil language.

"You must reach out to the youths on our ideology, will you do it? In particular, you must talk to students; both men and women as they appear to have no idea about ideology. DMK is not a party that was founded merely for the sake of fighting elections. It is a party that was founded to fight for the rights of the people," he said.

Chief Minister MK Stalin has a very long stint in public life, stretching to about 60 years and it was marked by a string of struggles and there is no other leader who could be compared to him.

Mocking at Palaniswami, Udhayanidhi claimed that the AIADMK chief has forgotten the founder-leader of his own party and that he has "forgotten the face" of party founder M G Ramachandran.

The DMK leader alleged mockingly: "Palaniswami has not only forgotten his party, but he has also forgotten his party's founder leader. The only face visible to him now is Union Minister Amit Shah's face. Even if he looks at MGR's face in an image, Palaniswami will only be reminded of Amit Shah. That is the level of training the BJP has given to him." When the AIADMK was defeated in the 2021 Assembly election, it blamed the BJP for its defeat and eventually walked out of the alliance.

Later, following a revival of ties in April this year, Palaniswami claimed that the AIADMK itself was protected by the BJP.

Alluding to signals from key ally Congress that it will be demanding more seats in the 2026 Assembly election and against the background of actor-politician Vijay offering a share in power to any party that joins forces with the TVK, the Deputy CM, without naming Congress directly said, "there is no need to bother, the hand will always be with us," Further, Udhayanidhi asserted that issues in this connection would be resolved by "Thalaivar (party chief Stalin)."