Chennai: The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu has convened a meeting of its North Zone Youth Wing on 14 December in Tiruvannamalai, entailing the participation of 1.3 lakh functionaries of the five lakh youth newly inducted into the party.
This is the party’s first-of-its-kind push for young wing “re-organisation”, with an eye on consolidating its influence among youth voters ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections. Similar meetings are expected for the South, East and West youth wings of the DMK in the near future.
The move comes amid DMK’s internal assessment that actor Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) is gaining traction among a section of young voters, with the party now attempting to tighten its grassroots network.
In a nine-day survey at the beginning of October, Populous Empowerment Network, the DMK’s strategy firm, found that TVK could secure a 23 percent share of votes contesting the 2026 Tamil Nadu elections alone.
Now, the DMK expects its 1.3 lakh functionaries aged between 18 and 34 years from 90 assembly constituencies spread across the DMK’s 29 administrative districts in the North Zone to attend the Tiruvannamalai meet.
This makes the scheduled event one of the largest mobilisation exercises undertaken by the ruling party internally.
Speaking to ThePrint, G.P. Raja, the DMK Youth Wing deputy secretary, said, “The participants of the meeting are not the general cadre, but newly appointed regional, ward, booth, and branch-level youth wing functionaries. Together, they will mark the first time that any unit of the DMK has mirrored the main party’s full organisational structure.”
“Across the state, as many as five lakh youth wing functionaries have been appointed at the grassroots level. They are not just young members of the party, but also a politicised youth with political leadership qualities capable of targeting voters at the grassroots level,” G.P. Raja added.
A Udhayanidhi Stalin-style restructuring
The DMK has engaged multiple political strategists for the 2026 assembly elections. Sources at Anbagam, where the headquarters of the DMK Youth Wing is located, told ThePrint that Deputy Chief Minister and Youth Wing Secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin is also emphasising a youth wing reorganisation.
According to them, Udhayanidhi views a tightly structured youth organisation, mirroring the main party’s chain of command, as critical for strengthening the party at the booth level ahead of the 2026 assembly election.
“To ensure the new structure remains strictly youth-led, the party has set up a dedicated verification control room at its youth wing office to cross-check the age of every appointee and ensure no one above 34 slips through. The verification drive has been as rigorous as a membership audit, reflecting the leadership’s intent to keep the wing genuinely youthful,” the source at Anbagam told ThePrint.
This is not the first time the DMK youth wing has shown a keenness to attract the youth voters in recent times.
Small attempts for big outcomes
The first time, the DMK youth wing went hunting for 100 orators across the state to build a network of youth speakers for the party’s election campaign, as well as social media outreach. Later, there was the youth wing’s Kalaignar student reporters’ scheme, followed by a fellowship for writers and researchers working on the state’s Dravidian history.
Subsequently, in November, the youth wing also organised Arivu Thiruvizha (Knowledge Festival)—a book fair highlighting the party’s history, ideology, and political principles, as part of the party’s diamond jubilee celebrations.
G.P. Raja said the upcoming meeting would serve as a model for the youth wings of all political parties in the country.
“This is the most extensive youth reorganisation that the party has ever undertaken. This is about building long-term political strength and bringing young people directly into organisational responsibility,” Raja added.
The Tiruvannamalai meeting on 14 December will be the first in a series of region-wise, youth-wing meetings planned in Tamil Nadu.
This is DMK’s one of many attempts to counter the perceived rise of new political players and their appeal among first-time and early voters.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)