Promises delivered and undelivered during 5 years of DMK government
Over the past five years, MK Stalin’s government has introduced various welfare schemes with far-reaching impact, helping to improve the lives of women and other sections.
It fulfilled important poll promises such as: Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam The law entitling 1.31 crore women heads of families to receive a monthly entitlement benefit of ₹ 1,000 and Vidiyal Payanam The scheme allows women to travel on certain routes with ‘zero-cost’ bus tickets.
At the same time, the government implemented plans that were not included in its manifesto. This included strengthening plans such as: Pudhumai Penn, Tamil Pudhalvan, Naan Mudhalvan, Illam Thedi Kalvi, Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam, And Thayumanavar.
So, how many of the 505 promises made by DMK in 2021 were realized? Party leaders have made various claims on this issue in the past. Some leaders claimed 90% were honored.
However, earlier this month, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, in the presence of the Prime Minister, officially announced that the 75% promises had been fulfilled or fulfilled.
Regarding the breakdown, he said 206 promises have been fulfilled, 170 have been fulfilled and 32 are under review by the State government, while 33 are pending with the Union government. Nearly 20 promises were withdrawn “because they were not feasible.” However, the Minister did not specify which of these were deemed unrealizable.
However, an examination of the 2021 manifesto revealed some important promises that were either unfulfilled or partially fulfilled.
Promise number 3 of the manifesto was: “DMK, in its efforts to counter the National Education Policy introduced by the BJP government, will formulate a separate State Education Policy for Tamil Nadu. A high-level committee comprising various educationists and other experts will be constituted to achieve this objective.” The government constituted the Justice Murugesan Committee. However, only Tamil Nadu has published the School Education Policy 2025, while the Higher Education Policy is yet to be formulated.
Horticultural University
The Horticulture University in Krishnagiri (No. 53) and the Agricultural University in Madurai (No. 54) are still on paper. A separate reservation of 2.5% (No. 332) was not implemented for students of government-aided schools in medical colleges.
The government’s promise number 159 to repay postgraduate education loans to students under 30 years of age studying in schools in Tamil Nadu who cannot repay within a year has also not been fulfilled.
The government has not fulfilled its assurance to set up Kalaignar Canteens (No. 331) at 500 places in the first phase to provide food to the poor and underprivileged people across the State at a subsidized cost.
Coming to the fight against corruption, DMK has promised to set up special courts (No. 21) to handle corruption cases against former AIADMK Ministers and expedite its function. However, DVAC only registered cases against some former Ministers.
The government also did not take any steps to enact a law to reserve 75% of jobs in the private sector for locals (No. 196). DMK had also said that priority would be given to first-generation graduates in government jobs (No. 179).
Although the government promised to revive the Old Pension Scheme (No. 309), it walked a tight tightrope; I found one through the media and introduced the Tamil Nadu Guaranteed Pension Scheme.
One of the most populist promises was the government’s failure to deliver on its assurance of giving ₹100 as cooking gas cylinder subsidy (No. 503) to ration card holders. It did not reduce the price of diesel by ₹4 per liter (No. 504).
As part of the same promise, although it had promised to reduce the price of petrol by ₹5 per litre, the government has actually reduced the price by ₹3 (state excise duty).
However, the government has fulfilled its promise (No. 505) to reduce the price of Aavin milk by ₹3 per litre.
Another broken populist promise is the monthly payment of electricity bills (No. 221). The DMK manifesto said: “The current system of bi-monthly payment of electricity bills will be replaced by a monthly payment system to ease the financial burden on people. This scheme will enable a user household to save up to ₹6,000 (for <1000 units) per year."
Although the DMK had promised to abolish NEET-based medical admissions (No. 160), it could not fulfill this promise despite passing the bill twice due to the President’s disapproval.
“During the current AIADMK government, the Legislative Assembly could meet for only a few days, due to which many problems faced by the people could not be resolved. Therefore, DMK will ensure that the House meets for at least 100 days and more,” Sole No. 376 said. However, according to an analysis by PRS Legislative Research, an independent research organisation, the House’s average annual sitting day was only 32 days; this was lower than 34 days during the AIADMK regime.
It was published – 30 March 2026 12:04 IST
