Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin on Saturday exhorted the party workers to strive to win all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state and the lone constituency in neighbouring in Puducherry in the Parliamentary elections scheduled next year.

Addressing a mammoth gathering here, where more than 4,000 people from various political parties including the AIADMK and DMDK joined the ruling DMK, Stalin reminded that the Secular Democratic Alliance (SDA), led by his party had lost one seat to the opposition in the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

He urged the partymen to work hard to win all the 40 seats (39 in TN and 1 in Puducherry) in the coming elections, since the people had given a clear mandate for the SDA by giving a thumping victory to the alliance partner-Congress' candidate- in the recent Erode East Assembly bypoll.

Stalin said the win in Erode East was a reflection of the good governance and schemes given to the people of Tamil Nadu, like free bus travel for women as promised in the manifesto and Rs 1,000 ?to all girls from classes 6 to 12 in government schools, which was not in the manifesto.

Claiming that some parties were trying to create confusion and instigate violence in the name of religion and caste and also attempting to oust the DMK government, he said the alliance winning all the 40 seats would be a befitting reply to them.

He also said the DMK would work for the victory of alliance partners in other states. Tracing the history of DMK's founding by late C N Annadurai, he said it was formed not for power, but to serve the poor, downtrodden and farmers and added the party had seen many ups and downs, dismissals, before coming to power for a 6th time in 2021.