Chennai: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the primary opposition party in Tamil Nadu, has launched a strategic initiative to scout and cultivate skilled orators ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
The initiative of its students’ wing focuses on young individuals between the ages of 18 and 35, with proficiency in both English and Tamil.
Political analysts see this as a strategic move to compete with the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which boasts prominent speakers like A. Raja and Kanimozhi, and has hired additional political consultants for the 2026 elections.
According to the party’s students wing, as many as 5,000 speakers from across the state have enrolled for the oratorical competition, of which more than 4,000 are between 18 and 35. About 500 of them are between the ages of 35 and 40, while the rest are above the age of 40.
The move, according to AIADMK students’ wing state secretary Singai G. Ramachandran, was aimed at consolidating the party’s speakers across the state under one umbrella.
“It’s an internal competition, where the speakers will be given topics 10 days before the event, and they will have to deliver a three-minute speech. Based on their performances, they will be selected for the next round,” Ramachandran told ThePrint.
In October, the ruling DMK’s youth wing shortlisted about 180 young candidates who would be trained and deployed at party events, including public conferences.
Ramachandran explained that the final shortlisted candidates will be trained in different aspects of public speaking and would be engaged in the party’s public meetings. They would be trained to handle YouTube interviews, indoor and outdoor public speaking, model assembly and parliament sessions, among others, he added.
However, political analyst N. Sathiya Moorthy viewed it as a move to bridge the gap between the party and grassroots-level voters. The AIADMK had long forgotten to communicate with grassroots-level voters after the advent of political consultancy firms, he said.
“Dravidian leaders, including former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, used to receive inputs from the grassroots and would communicate with them constantly,” Sathiya Moorthy said. “But after the parties started recruiting consultancy firms, they dropped this communication, and the political consultants took on the role. Now, by engaging orators, the AIADMK is trying to bridge the gap between the party and grassroots-level voters.”
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Why this search
With just a year left for the elections, both Dravidian parties are preparing their ground for the electoral test. While the DMK started its poll campaigns in December, almost 18 months before the assembly elections, the AIADMK began its preparations in January.
The DMK is already on a poll-strategist hiring spree despite having its own political strategy firm ‘Populus Empowerment Network (PEN)’. In contrast, the AIADMK has been unable to sign with any potential poll-strategist, leaving them at a disadvantage.
The announcement of the oratorical competition came after AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami instructed Ramachandran to identify more active public speakers to take the party’s message to the people.
“We need active speakers from the party who can take the party’s politics and ideology to the people. Although they are good speakers, they need training to handle different situations. So, we are on a mission to identify potential speakers, train them, and send them back to the ground by May, a year before the assembly elections,” Ramachandran told ThePrint.
Senior AIADMK workers, whom ThePrint spoke to, said that the party has “finally woken up to reality”. “We have been urging the leaders to groom more youngsters, but nobody listened to us. Finally, they are trying to bring in more young blood, and we hope this will change the current political scenario,” a former AIADMK minister said.
The former minister also shared how the AIADMK gained its prominence in the electoral forum for so many years without grooming orators. “The DMK was the reason for it. Although MGR was not a good speaker, when he walked out of the DMK, a lot of good orators walked along with him, and they helped the party reach grassroots-level workers. That’s why the party survived years after the demise of MGR. But that’s not the case now.”
Political analysts also pointed out that the AIADMK lost many opportunities to pinpoint the mistakes of the DMK, which led to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) latching on to the opportunities to criticise the state government.
Political analyst N. Arunkumar felt that the AIADMK was “scared” to make new attempts as it was worried about losing the existing vote bank. “Right from the Parandur airport expansion project to the old pension scheme, the leaders could have met the people in person and spoken to them. These are the things that a strategist would guide. Grooming orators is an attempt to fill the gap left by the senior leaders and the lack of political strategist,” Arunkumar shared.
However, a senior AIADMK leader denied that the oratorical competition was an attempt to compensate for the lack of a political strategist. “Getting a political strategist is a separate process, and grooming orators is different. In any case, we need orators for public speaking.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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