DMK Faces Internal Strife After Election Defeat

'How does the person responsible for the leader's defeat stand before the leader, showing his face, without even a shred of shame, fear, apprehension, or embarrassment?'

Two days after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was defeated in Tamil Nadu, rifts have emerged in the open within the DMK.

Former Egmore MLA I Paranthamen has blamed P K Sekarbabu, a former DMK minister, for party supremo M K Stalin's defeat.

Stalin lost the election in Kolathur, which was considered a DMK stronghold, by 8,795 votes to Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam candidate V S Babu.

Stalin's Shock Defeat in Kolathur: What Happened?

Babu, the man who defeated Stalin, was previously associated with the DMK and was elected an MLA from Purasawalkam in 2006.

A grassroots worker who rose to become the DMK's North Chennai district secretary, he became a popular figure in political circles.

His popularity and importance within the DMK faded with the emergence of other leaders, including P K Sekarbabu.

Babu was replaced by Sekarbabu as the North Chennai district secretary after Stalin won the Kolathur seat by a narrow margin of 2,734 votes in the 2011 assembly polls.

After Babu's removal, Stalin won Kolathur by 27,730 votes in 2016 and by 70,384 votes in 2021.

Babu went on to join the AIADMK, the DMK's arch rival, in 2016. In February 2026, Babu moved to actor Vijay's TVK party after which he secured a chance to contest against Stalin, whom he defeated, becoming the giant killer in Tamil Nadu politics.

DMK MLA Publicly Targets Sekarbabu

Taking to his X account and tagging P K Sekarbabu, Paranthamen wrote, 'In electoral politics, victory and defeat are natural; the DMK movement has seen the heights of both. But only if the party headquarters takes action without any mercy or leniency toward someone who failed to pay attention to the leader's constituency, despite campaigning across the entirety of Tamil Nadu, will a true DMK worker find peace.

'How does the person responsible for the leader's defeat stand before the leader, showing his face, without even a shred of shame, fear, apprehension, or embarrassment? Is this what you meant when you said, "I'll take care of it".'

By doing so, Paranthamen alleged that Sekarbabu failed in his organisational responsibility to safeguard the Kolathur seat for Stalin.

Will Congress support TVK?

The TVK is short of 10 MLAs to form the government in Tamil Nadu. The Congress party with its 5 MLAs is likely to support Vijay as may the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India-Marxist, which have two MLAs each.

Another four Pattali Makkal Katchi MLAs could support Vijay to form the government.

DMK's Future Tense

Apart from Stalin, 14 out of 32 DMK ministers lost the 2026 elections.

Though it is not the first time the DMK has lost an election, the difference being that the late party supremo M Karunanidhi himself never lost an assembly election. Stalin has not only lost power but his seat as well for the third time in his political career.

Stalin lost his first election in 1984 from Chennai's Thousand Lights constituency when he was the party's 31-year-old youth wing secretary.

In the 1991 election, following the dismissal of the DMK government by then prime minister Chandra Shekhar, Stalin was defeated by the AIADMK's K A Krishnaswamy by 16,981 votes.

Karunanidhi, from his maiden contest in 1957 till his last victory in 2016, had an uninterrupted 13 electoral wins.

The DMK will have to decide who will lead it in the state assembly now that Stalin won't be in the House.

Party insiders say Stalin's 48-year-old son Udhayanidhi will take charge. Udhayanidhi -- previously the deputy chief minister -- won the 2026 elections from the Chepauk-Triplicane constituency.