Political analysts say these social welfare schemes will have a lasting impact on voters and could disrupt the opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) vote bank.
“These initiatives have not only strengthened the DMK’s vote bank among women and youth but also disrupted traditional voting patterns,” A. Ramasamy, former head and professor at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University’s Tamil department, told ThePrint.
“Families that historically aligned with MGR and Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK are now swayed by the DMK’s targeted welfare,” he added.
Apart from the implementation of social welfare schemes, Stalin’s consistent fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) Union government on the New Education Policy and delimitation, while trying to project himself as a leader who can unite other states have burnished his image as an uncompromised national leader, political analysts say.
“The government’s vocal opposition to the New Education Policy, delimitation and Hindi imposition has also bolstered the party’s regional identity. Stalin’s leadership in building an all-India anti-BJP front has yielded political mileage,” Arunkumar, Assistant Professor at the political science department at Chennai’s Vellore Institute of Technology, told ThePrint.
However, while Stalin has strengthened his position, both within the DMK and as a leader at the national level, his tenure as chief minister has seen setbacks and challenges.
Stalin has faced serious criticism for “failing” to keep law and order, corruption and caste crimes in check, and not meeting the electoral promise of creating job opportunities.
“Stalin stresses the importance of education at every possible meeting, but the biggest problem after completing education is jobs. There are no jobs available for the qualifications of our students. Although they have brought in a number of companies, they are still not enough,” Sunil Kumar, assistant professor at a private university, told ThePrint.
Nevertheless, DMK spokesperson T.K.S. Elangovan said the results of the schemes implemented by the DMK government stand testament to the government’s performance.
“Almost all the electoral promises have been fulfilled. As far as law and order is concerned, the opposition is trying to create a false narrative which was debunked by the CM at the state assembly,” Elangovan told ThePrint.
“We have created enough job opportunities for the youth in Tamil Nadu through various investments. And Tamil Nadu is among the top states to have more start-ups through which hundreds of people have got jobs indirectly,” he added.
However, the AIADMK’s national spokesperson, Kovai Sathyan, has dismissed the Tamil Nadu government’s figures as “fake” and “fudged”.
“Tamil Nadu’s growth during the DMK government is unremarkable compared to the AIADMK’s tenure, which saw a real achievement of 8.6 percent growth in 2017 against a national average of 4.3 percent. Similarly, the 13 percent poverty rate at the beginning of the AIADMK government was reduced to 3 percent by 2021,” Kovai Sathyan told ThePrint.
“The DMK has not achieved anything meaningful; instead, it has only made Tamil Nadu the drug state of India.”
As the Stalin government completes 4 years, ThePrint looks at its four significant wins and four major challenges.
Also read: As 2 ministers resign, Stalin applies poll arithmetic in Tamil Nadu cabinet reshuffle ahead of 2026
Stain govt’s four hits
Soon after coming to power, Stalin began his tenure by signing the official papers for a free bus travel scheme for women in the state in 2021.
Political analyst Ramasamy said the scheme has had a tangible impact on rural women and helped bolster Stalin’s image as a champion of women’s welfare.
“Women in rural areas have really benefited from this scheme. They own this scheme as their right and even for a small distance travel that would cost just Rs 10 in a shared auto, women ignore other modes of transport and choose free bus travel. It has helped rural women to travel from the village to the city for jobs,” Ramasamy said.
According to the state Planning Commission’s survey report tabled in 2022, women passengers from Nagapattinam, Madurai and Tirupur districts save an average of about Rs 888 per month due to free bus travel. It also found that women passengers in Chennai made around 50 trips a month under the scheme, saving Rs 858 a month.
The study also flagged the low frequency of buses under the scheme, but Ramasamy said women had adapted by learning the schedules and making use of the free services.
“In the initial days, some were struggling to know by what time the free bus would come as they had to rush to their place of work on time. But now they are used to the bus timings and assert it as their right to travel in these buses,” said Ramasamy.
On the DMK government’s first anniversary, Stalin even took a government bus—number 29C in Chennai’s Radhakrishnan Road—to interact with commuters and assess their experience under the DMK government as well as the implementation of the free bus scheme.
Soon after the first year, Stalin announced a free breakfast scheme for government school students, which was later extended to government-aided schools in Tamil Nadu.
State Planning Commission Vice Chairman J. Jeyaranjan told ThePrint that the CM was keen on launching this scheme even before winning the election in 2021.
“He was thinking of adding the promise of bringing a free breakfast scheme as one of the electoral promises. But then, whatever he does for the children of the state, he wants to do it without telling them,” Jeyaranjan told ThePrint.
The State Planning Commission’s survey on the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme found that the scheme led to a 63.2 percent decline in hospital admissions among primary class children in government schools and a 70.6 percent reduction in serious illnesses between December 2023 and December 2024.
Jeyaranjan said the scheme’s greater impact will be known only a few years down the line.
According to Jeyaranjan, Stalin’s government has introduced several key welfare schemes that were not part of the DMK’s election manifesto.
In addition to the Breakfast Scheme, at least three major initiatives were launched post-election—Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Pudhumai Penn Scheme, proving financial aid of Rs 1,000 monthly to government school girl students pursuing their higher education; the Tamil Pudhalvan Scheme, proving financial assistance of Rs 1,000 to male students in government schools and pursuing higher education; and the Naan Mudhalvan Scheme, to develop skills and prepare students for employment and higher education including training for competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, banking and railways.
Retired Former Additional Chief Secretary of West Bengal, G. Balachandran, told ThePrint the government has brought in meaningful social justice initiatives without compromising on students’ education.
“The Naan Mudhalvan scheme is a social-economic game-changer. It is one of the biggest socio-economic projects, through which youth get free coaching for the civil service. This year, over 50 of them have cleared the UPSC and the number will keep increasing,” Balachandran said.
Analysts said among the prominent social welfare schemes, the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam offering Rs 1,000 in monthly financial aid to eligible women proved to be a real game changer, blunting the opposition against Stalin.
Assistant Professor Arunkumar credited the scheme for nullifying the anti-Stalin vote.
“Almost all the towering leaders in the state had their share of negative impact. Even when the DMK won in the past, there were anti-Karunanidhi votes. But, visibly, there is no anti-Stalin vote and he has risen above the party’s image with his uncompromising social welfare policies and unwavering fight against the Union government,” Arunkumar said.
Professor Ramasamy said the decision to implement universal welfare schemes, rather than targeting specific communities, has made Stalin a unique leader.
“Whether it was the AIADMK or the DMK, most of the schemes would be implemented targeting a particular community. Say, for example, the AIADMK would bring in schemes that benefit a few classes of society and the DMK would target the salaried classes,” Ramasamy said.
“But this time, Stalin has made the schemes universal without a specific target, which has earned him this status,” he added.
Stalin govt’s four misses
Among the four major misses is the DMK’s handling of law and order, with assistant professor Sunilkumar saying the government has “failed” in maintaining law and order in the state.
“There has been a disturbing trend in organised crime, including murders and the safety of women in public. Although the numbers provided by the CM in the assembly show that the cases of murders are less compared to the previous regime, there seems to be an increase in the gangster culture and there is a need to reinforce that people are safe in the state,” Sunilkumar said.
However, when opposition leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami raised concerns over law and order and four murders reported on a single day—19 March, 2025—Stalin told the assembly that Tamil Nadu had recorded 1,540 murders in 2024, the lowest in the past 12 years.
“Comparing the number of murders between 2012 and 2024, more murders happened in 2012 when the AIADMK was in power. There were 1,943 murders in 2012, which was the highest in 12 years and there were 1,661 murders in 2020, even during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown time,” he told the assembly on 20 March.
According to the chief minister, overall murder cases fell 6.8 percent in 2024 from 2023 and revenge murder cases dropped 42.7 percent during this period.
However, with just a year to go before the polls, former bureaucrat Balachandran said the DMK’s ability to retain goodwill among the people hinged on addressing law and order.
Apart from concerns over law and order, Balachandran said corruption at the grassroots level was weighing down public services, adding that “indirect costs are crippling” government offices.
“There is a perception that corruption has increased at the grassroots. They are not visibly known, but they still exist,” Balachandran said.
Apart from corruption, Sunilkumar also noted that the high-profile corruption and money laundering cases against the DMK ministers have hurt the reputation of the DMK significantly.
“The DMK was even forced to remove two of its ministers—Senthil Balaji and Ponmudi—over various charges. There are a series of disproportionate asset cases being recalled by the High Court, which might take a toll on the prospects of the DMK,” Sunilkumar said.
Although Stalin’s personal image remains untarnished, Arunkumar emphasised the need to fulfil the promise to increase job opportunities and address the grievances of government employees, who are the DMK’s potential vote bank.
In the 2021 election manifesto, the DMK promised to create 5.5 lakh jobs in the government sector over 5 years, apart from promising to fill 3.5 lakh vacant positions in government and education institutions.
During one of his campaigns, Stalin even announced his vision to create 10 lakh jobs per year for the next 10 years and aiming to create 1 crore jobs to lift 1 crore people from poverty.
“Despite economic growth, the government also needs to ensure that the youth get proper job opportunities. The government has not filled any of the vacancies in the higher education institutions, which has caused distress among the educated youth. The Teachers Recruitment Board has not recruited any staff for teaching posts in higher education,” Arunkumar said.
The Samsung workers’ protest and 37-day strike of employees, disrupting production, underscored the DMK government’s tightrope walk: it did not want to be seen as a government that creates hurdles for industries; at the same time, it also did not want to be seen as an anti-labour party.
The fourth challenge for the DMK is the growth of the BJP.
While the DMK is fighting it, it has not been able to completely counter the BJP, which increased its vote share by 11 percent in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and has successfully stitched an alliance with the AIADMK.
Balachandran said the BJP’s strategic maneuvering had posed a challenge to the DMK in the last year.
“It is to be seen how the DMK is going to handle the BJP, which is going to leverage enforcement agencies like the ED to unsettle DMK ministers just like it did in other states,” he said.
With a year to go before the next state election, the DMK government has entered a critical phase.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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