DMK launches online membership drive ahead of Assembly polls

With the Covid-19 regulations making door-to-door campaign almost impossible, Tamil Nadu’s principal Opposition party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), has launched online enrolment of membership ahead of the 2021 assembly polls.

The membership drive through the party’s official website was launched by DMK President M K Stalin on Tuesday with an aim to add at least 25 lakh new members, especially youngsters, to the party in the next 45 days. The online membership drive called as “Ellorum Nammudan” (All With Us) has so far resulted in addition of over 70,000 members, the party said on Thursday.

The DMK realises that 2021 assembly elections is very crucial for the party which has been out of power in Tamil Nadu for the past nine years and has been taken efforts to galvanise cadre at the grassroots and bringing more people into its fold.

The principal Opposition party feels reaching out to youngsters is more important as the 2021 election ground is expected to be a crowded match with too many players. While Kamal Haasan’s MNM and AIADMK rebel T T V Dhinakaran’s AMMK will contest the assembly polls for the first time, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth is also likely to launch his party in the next few months and fight the Dravidian majors.

“Ellorum Nammudan aims to put power in the hands of everyone who wishes to become a party member. Given the pandemic that has reduced our chances of interacting with the people, we believe that the campaign will help us interact and communicate with the people. We know that the people want to support us and have been waiting for an opportunity to do so and Ellorum Nammudan will achieve exactly that,” party’s youth wing chief Udhayanidhi Stalin said.

Immediately after taking over as new General Secretary, Durai Murugan had last week said the DMK needs to go to educational institutions to propagate its ideology to counter the “onslaught” of the BJP which has been quite vocal in its goal to “overthrow” the Dravidian ideology. It is colleges and other educational institutions that were the breeding ground for DMK in the 1950s and 1960s.

The party said those who become members online will enjoy rights on par with regular members. “But when they want to vote in the organisational poll, their background details would be verified by the local party representative. They should also complete one year to participate in elections. They can vote in the election if they enrol 25 more members,” it said.