Chennai, March 15 Rising crimes against women, broken election promises, and a debt crisis would dominate the 2026 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu, although the ruling DMK heavily relies on its social welfare initiatives and investments to seek the people's mandate for a consecutive term in office.
The election to the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly will be held on April 23. In the outgoing Assembly, the DMK has a strength of 132, while that of the main opposition party, the AIADMK, stands at 60.
Allegations of corruption against some state ministers, illegal sand mining, drug menace, and dynastic rule are also among the numerous poll issues raised by various parties, including the AIADMK, BJP, PMK, and even the Vijay-led TVK.
"The major issue is the lack of safety for women and girls due to the increasing crimes against them. This is due to the rise in ganja sales in the state," claims BJP state chief Nainar Nagenthran.
Families across the state live in fear and anxiety as the safety of women in Tamil Nadu "falls to a new low every day during the DMK regime," a senior AIADMK leader claimed.
During his "Makkalai Kaapom, Tamilagathai Meetpom" (save people, redeem Tamil Nadu) public outreach campaign, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami targeted the DMK on a string of issues, including the alleged deterioration of law and order, the debt crisis caused by the DMK government through borrowing over Rs 5 lakh crore, resulting in a debt burden of Rs 1.5 lakh on every child born, broken election promises, dynastic rule, and scams.
Terming the DMK as an "advertisement model governance" to ridicule DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin's claims on the performance of the Dravidian model governance, Palaniswami assured to implement the welfare schemes of the previous AIADMK regime if his party was voted to power.
The parties—DMK, AIADMK, and the TVK—have lavishly showered freebie promises to the voters, especially women. While the DMK announced to double the monthly entitlement to Rs 2,000 for women heads of family ration cardholders, the AIADMK also assured to provide Rs 2,000 every month if the party was voted to power.
The TVK has promised a monthly financial grant of Rs 2,500 to women heads until 60 years of age, excluding central and state government employees, if the party wins the election.
The TVK announced "super six" poll promises for women, including six free LPG cylinders.
The AIADMK promised three free LPG cylinders annually to the rice-drawing ration cardholders in the state, and Palaniswami has assured to provide a one-time ex-gratia of Rs 10,000 to every family to mitigate the impact of inflation and tax hikes effected by the DMK regime.
Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin, who ensured Rs 5,000 was directly credited into the bank accounts of 1.31 crore women beneficiaries, accused the opposition of plotting to halt this entitlement scheme citing the Assembly election.
He reaffirmed the 10-year vision with which he sought the people's mandate in the 2021 poll and has been highlighting in his speeches how Tamil Nadu was steadily advancing towards that goal.
"No other state has implemented as many transformative flagship schemes at this scale as our Dravidian model government has. Tamil Nadu today delivers all-round performance across sectors, with development reaching every region in a balanced and equitable manner," he asserts.
At a time when BJP-ruled states were distracted by communal polarisation, hate speech, and regressive politics, Tamil Nadu stood as a rational, inclusive, and development-driven state where social justice fueled growth, fraternity strengthened progress, and harmony powered prosperity, Stalin had recently said.
Naam Tamilar Katchi chief coordinator Seeman and expelled AIADMK leader and a long-time aide of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, V K Sasikala who recently launched her own political party - the All India Puratchi Thalaivar Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam - would fire salvos at the Dravidian majors in a multi-cornered contest in the state.
Tamil Nadu has a voters' strength of 5.67 crore and they would elect 234 MLAs.