CHENNAI: Deputy Chief Minister and DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin on Tuesday launched his state-wide election campaign for the 2026 assembly polls from the ancestral home of CN Annadurai in Kancheepuram, invoking the Dravidian leader's ideals.

As part of an effort to strengthen the DMK's organisation at the state level, Udhayanidhi will tour across districts and interact with office-bearers at all levels. At each stop, he will honour functionaries with the party's black-and-red shawl and collect their feedback through suggestion boxes and forms. These will be reviewed personally and presented to Chief Minister MK Stalin.

In Kancheepuram, he felicitated ten party functionaries who had excelled in the 'Ooraniyil Tamil Nadu' campaign, an organisational drive to consolidate the party at the booth level.

He also interacted with volunteers and representatives of various associations, answering questions raised through the suggestion forms. Stressing the DMK's core principle of State autonomy, he urged cadres to stand by the Chief Minister in resisting what he termed the Union government's dominance.

During his visit, Udhayanidhi presided over a welfare distribution function at Sevilimedu, where he handed out assistance worth Rs 253 crore to 4,997 beneficiaries across 17 departments. He distributed housing site pattas to 3,846 families and inaugurated new government buildings.

Taking a dig at rivals, he said the Union BJP government symbolised repression and the AIADMK symbolised subservience, whereas the DMK's Dravidian model stood for social justice and progress. Highlighting flagship schemes, he announced that the Kalaignar entitlement scheme would soon reach all eligible women.

Expressing confidence, Udhayanidhi said Chief Minister Stalin would secure another term in 2026.