2024 LS polls: DMK announces 3-day campaign across TN and Pondy from February 16

CHENNAI: Seeking to take a lead over its rivals ahead of a crucial Lok Sabha election, the ruling DMK has announced a campaign across parliamentary constituencies focussing on ‘retrieving the rights’ of states. It has also formed a ‘War Room’ headed by advocates to address electoral issues at the local level in coordination with office-bearers.

For the three-day campaign named ‘Stalin’s Call to Retrieve Rights’ (Urimaigalai Meetka Stalinin Kural) that will be launched on February 16, the party has fielded its heavyweights and popular leaders, including Ministers Duraimurugan, I Periasamy and Udhayanidhi Stalin, parliamentarians TR Baalu and K Kanimozhi, and RS Bharathi.

These leaders will address public meetings across the State and Puducherry union territory, which together account for 40 Lok Sabha seats.

The ‘Stalin’s Call to Retrieve Rights’ (Urimaigalai Meetka Stalin-in Kural) campaign will focus on the “injustices done by the BJP to Tamil Nadu in the past 10 years and the opposition AIADMK which betrayed the people by not protecting the states’ rights,” the statement said.

Earlier in the day, the DMK also announced the formation of a ‘War Room’ to be led led by a battery of party lawyers to address issues at the local level in coordination with office-bearers.

Besides the State-level war room, the Dravidian major said district-wise war rooms will also be set up, which shall have a three-tier network of coordinators; one at the district level and the other two at the levels of a Parliamentary constituency and a ‘front’ (covering areas under the jurisdiction of a single police station).

A 33-member team of advocates will run the war room (headquarters), the party said.

The party has also named a three-member team of advocates for ‘election cases’ and a two-member legal team for coordination purposes on matters related to statutory compliances vis-à-vis polls and representations to be made to the Election Commission.