Chennai: With the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) beginning their campaign several months ahead of the 2026 assembly election, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has prohibited his party’s second-rung leaders from talking about AIADMK and Vijay’s TVK until further orders.
The idea is to avoid giving headline space to the AIADMK and TVK in the run-up to the elections, party leaders told ThePrint.
According to a senior DMK leader, the recent gag orders come after the party leadership found that the party’s seniors are giving undue attention to opposition parties.
Meanwhile, the party leadership has also found that the DMK was hitting out at AIADMK instead of targeting the ideological rival BJP.
“Since it was distracting the ground level second-rung leaders from working against the ideological rival and working against a Dravidian rival, the party leadership has asked them to concentrate on the booth-level membership drive,” the senior leader added.
However, the DMK leadership has given a green signal to senior leaders Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and DMK MP Kanimozhi to take on AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
Speaking to ThePrint, DMK’s organising secretary R.S. Bharathi said that they are focusing on reaching out to people by explaining the welfare works done by the DMK government.
“We do not want to get distracted by responding to other political parties. It is needless attention for the opposition party. We have created awareness among people about the injustices of the Union Government,” R.S. Bharathi told ThePrint.
The party leadership sent messages to functionaries prior to the Oraniyil Tamil Nadu public meetings, the party’s mass membership drive, held across the state on 20 and 21 September. In one of the meetings held in Kancheepuram district, Minister R. Gandhi revealed that they were ordered not to speak about TVK.
“Some of them are speaking about us. But, we are asked not to speak about them,” Gandhi told the gathering on 21 September.
It was on 13 September that actor-turned-politician Vijay began his first statewide political tour ahead of the 2026 assembly election. In the campaign, while addressing the gathering in Trichy and Ariyalur, Vijay hit out at DMK stating that the DMK has not fulfilled its poll promises.
“They listed 5005 poll promises and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin claims to have fulfilled more than 90% of them. But, in reality, nothing has been fulfilled,” he told the gathering on 13 September.
Subsequently on 14 September, the DMK leadership found that as many as 16 cabinet ministers reacted to Vijay’s criticism.
Senior leaders targeting EPS
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and MP Kanimozhi are openly attacking AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
On 22 September, addressing a gathering in Chennai, DMK MP and the party’s deputy general secretary Kanimozhi said, after Palaniswami’s recent visit to Delhi to meet Amit Shah, that the AIADMK had shifted the party’s headquarters permanently to the national capital.
In response, Palaniswami said the day after that Kanimozhi must’ve been dreaming. “The AIADMK office is very much in Chennai and Kanimozhi is welcome to visit if she has any doubts,” Edappadi said.
On 24 September, Kanimozhi told reporters that everyone knew Palaniswami got his orders from Delhi. “We could not see him for the past four years. Now because there is an election coming up in 2026, we see him campaigning in the bus from one place to another,” she added.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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