The DMK has started to gear up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls - the first major electoral challenge under new party chief MK Stalin - as it seeks to stage a comeback from the total wipe out it suffered in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in 2014.

With brainstorming sessions with senior functionaries and office-bearers to take stock of the situation on the ground and to galvanize its organizational network, the party has switched into election mode.

After constituting a two-member committee for each of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state and Puducherry last week, the party said it hold a conclave of Lok Sabha constituency panels and district secretaries at the party headquarters in Chennai on October 25. Strategies for the 2019 polls would be discussed at the meeting, party general secretary K Anbazhagan said in a statement on Sunday.

Unlike in other parties, the DMK district secretaries, with their domain knowledge, wield power in the organization and play a key role in devising election strategies. “Those on the Lok Sabha constituency panel are mostly in the third rung-of the party hierarchy and the party wants to utilise them in this task,” a senior party leader told Hindustan Times.

Since these are the first major elections under Stalin’s leadership, the party has launched the election work well ahead of the4 election announcement.

After last week’s DMK High-Level Committee meeting, Stalin had said, “We discussed all the aspects of facing the LS polls. We considered in detail about alliance and seat sharing issues as well. Once the election commission announces the dates, we will officially begin the seat-sharing talks with our partners.” Preparing the party’s election manifesto too has begun, he added.

First Published: Oct 22, 2018 23:56 IST