DMK banks on welfare schemes to strengthen 2026 re-election bid
CHENNAI: The DMK's re-election bid seems stronger than ever before and the party is betting big on welfare schemes to retain power in 2026.
Ever since coming to power in 2021 after a decade-long gap, the party – led by Chief Minister M K Stalin – has invested its time, energy and money into welfare programmes, targeting women and students in particular whose votes can tilt the scales in favour of the Dravidian major.
The first big move came within the very first month of assuming office with the introduction of free bus travel for women followed by the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme for elementary kids and Pudhumai Penn Scheme for girls' higher education in 2022.
After being questioned by the opposition on its electoral promise of providing Rs 1,000 per month to women, the government rolled out the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai (KMUT) scheme in 2023 which has benefitted 1.15 crore women from economically weaker sections.
In 2024, the government introduced a scheme similar to Pudhumai Penn for boys, named Tamil Pudhalvan, offering Rs 1,000 a month to support them for higher education.
Around 59 lakh women use the free bus travel on a daily basis. The CM's Breakfast Scheme reaches 17.53 lakh students, while the Pudhumai Penn Scheme benefits 4.9 lakh girls, and the Tamil Pudhalvan Scheme has around 4.25 lakh beneficiaries.
The Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam Scheme – introduced in 2021 to tackle the increasing non-communicable diseases – has covered over 2.2 crore people across TN by providing doorstep healthcare services.
In fine, these schemes have had an impact on around 25% of the state's population.
Recently, the DMK government announced the revival of the free laptop scheme, this time targeting 20 lakh college students at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore. While the scheme is a modified version of the one introduced by the previous AIADMK government, which provided laptops to students of Classes 11 and 12, the shift in focus to college students appears to be a strategic move, possibly aimed at wooing first-time voters.
While the party has tried to weave in the demands of a wide cross-section of voters from government employees and farmers to daily wage workers and the general public, some of the key promises that are yet to be fulfilled include restoring the Old Pension Scheme, reducing LPG, petrol and diesel prices, providing 100 units of free electricity every month (as opposed to the current bimonthly model) and increasing the number of workdays under MNREGA to 150.
The DMK government has cited financial situation, primarily due to non-release of funds from the union government, getting in the way (of unfulfilled promises). The DMK has also been criticised for not getting exemption for TN from NEET.
While the DMK holds the distinction of being the first regional party in India to come to power, dethroning the Congress in the state in 1967, it is yet to secure a second consecutive term in its 76-year history. The party now appears to be banking heavily on its welfare schemes to break this jinx and return to power.
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