Chennai: With an eye on the 2026 Assembly elections, the DMK has begun an overt and carefully calibrated political push into Tamil Nadu’s western belt, especially in Coimbatore—long regarded as an AIADMK stronghold and an emerging base for the BJP—using a mix of caste outreach, regional symbolism and welfare politics.
Despite coming to power in 2021 by winning 133 of the 234 constituencies in the state, DMK was able to win just 24 of the 68 constituencies in the western region of Tamil Nadu. In Coimbatore, DMK could not win a single seat, while AIADMK won nine seats and BJP won one.
Although the party began its outreach programmes and consolidation exercise on the ground since 2021, the recent investment of political capital in the western region, such as naming a flyover in Coimbatore after industrialist G.D. Naidu and appointment of D. Srinivasan, Managing Director of Sree Annapoorna restaurant chain in Coimbatore, as a member of Tamil Nadu State Food Commission, has gained traction with the Naidu community in the region.
Similarly, the recent restructuring inside the party at the district level, making former Minister V. Senthil Balaji, who belongs to the Gounder community, the minister in-charge of Coimbatore district, and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin attending the conference of the Puthiya Dravida Kazhagam party run by Raj Gounder have gained some currency on the ground, according to DMK insiders in the western region.
Speaking to ThePrint, a DMK functionary in the Singanallur constituency in Coimbatore said that the shift in the support to these two communities was real in the months after the Lok Sabha polls.
“Although we have been working with the community people for long, we have always been seen as an anti-forward caste party and anti-Gounder party after few of the senior leaders left the party in late 1990s. However, now people have realised that our party does everything for everyone and treats every caste equally and gives representation to every community. Hence, the shift,” the DMK functionary in Singanallur constituency said.
While it is believed that the DMK’s symbolic gestures in the last one year have helped them get the support of the Gounder community, political commentator Raveendran Duraisamy pointed out that the shift began in early 2025.
“Although DMK won in the local body polls in 2021 and the Lok Sabha polls in 2024, the real shift happened after the Erode East by-polls held in February 2025. DMK has taken a pro-Gounder stance on the one hand, and consolidates non-Gounder communities through welfare measures, symbolic and strategic gestures without overtly participating in the community affairs. This has helped in the run-up to 2026 assembly election,” Raveendran Duraisamy told ThePrint.
The party, which once had a strong base in the western region, lost its base in the 1990s, after leaders including Erode A Ganesamoorthy, Tiruppur Duraisamy and M Kannappan joined MDMK launched by Vaiko in 1994.
While the western strategy relies heavily on political symbolism and caste calibration, it is also underpinned by an expansive micro-targeted welfare framework that the party believes can convert outreach into votes.
DMK has rolled out a series of community-specific schemes, targeting women, tribals, minorities and fisherfolk. Programmes such as the Tholkudi–Ainthinai initiative for tribal livelihoods, land-ownership subsidies for SC/ST women, micro-credit for fisherwomen, housing for Narikurava communities and scholarships for minority girls form the backbone of this strategy.
Under the Adi Dravidar & Tribal Welfare Department’s Tholkudi–Ainthinai programme, the beneficiaries have risen from 1,090 in 2023-24 to 7,564 in 2025-26 as allocation increased from Rs 5.59 crore to Rs 17.80 crore.
DMK increased vote share by 5% in west TN
Political analyst N. Sathiyamoorthy said the party’s recent electoral successes underline a deliberate western-region strategy. “In 2024, the DMK increased its vote share by around five percentage points (in western region), and succeeded in local body elections and by-polls,” said Sathiyamoorthy, pointing out that the chief minister’s broader political design was to ensure communities in the region do not feel taken for granted.
“They are weaving voters into the system. The message is that no group is dispensable,” he said, referring to targeted outreach efforts among dominant and sub-groups within the Gounder community.
DMK functionaries in the Erode district also recalled that the introduction of 3 percent internal reservation within the Scheduled Caste quota for Arunthathiyar community in 2009 by the then DMK government is now helping them in the western region.
“After the Supreme Court upheld the legality of internal reservation in August 2024, it has become much easier for us to reach out to the Arunthathiyar community (Scheduled Caste), which had been supporting AIADMK in the western region, especially in the Erode district, where former speaker P. Dhanabal was elected from in 2016 assembly election,” the DMK functionary in Erode district told ThePrint.
According to political analyst Sathiyamoorthy, two factors will dominate the 2026 assembly elections—personalised micro-targeting with quantifiable benefits, and an ideological contest between Hindutva and Dravidian or anti-Hindutva politics, a framework that now encompasses debates on secularism, language, federalism, health and employment schemes.
However, he warned that welfare measures have begun to saturate and it might pose a risk. “The Rs 1,000 financial assistance for women has become part of the family budget. The question voters now ask is: What more is there for me? People are comfortable, but they see these benefits as a right,” he said, pointing to rising public debt and the absence of a strong opposition narrative as emerging political challenges.
Nevertheless, DMK appears determined to ensure that even regions once considered politically distant do not remain outside its expanding electoral map.
DMK’s spokesperson said that they are not working for any particular caste, but working for all the people in the state, even those who did not vote for the party. “At the time of taking oath as the CM, our leader said that we will be working so hard that even those who did not vote for us would regret not voting for us. We ensured that all the people in the state are empowered and there is growth in every region and every sector,” the spokesperson told ThePrint.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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