diff --git a/dm/pkg/election/election.go b/dm/pkg/election/election.go
index c8b3b7607b..484ca4c32e 100644
--- a/dm/pkg/election/election.go
+++ b/dm/pkg/election/election.go
@@ -482,10 +482,15 @@ forLoop:
 			}
 		}
 
-		// add more options if needed.
-		// NOTE: I think use the client's context is better than something like `concurrency.WithContext(ctx)`,
-		// so we can close the session when the client is still valid.
-		session, err = concurrency.NewSession(e.cli, concurrency.WithTTL(e.sessionTTL))
+		// Bind the session ctx to the election ctx so Session.Close()'s Revoke
+		// call aborts when the election is closed, instead of waiting out the
+		// lease TTL on a dying etcd cluster. Without this, when all dm-masters
+		// receive SIGHUP together and tear down concurrently (ha_cases
+		// cleanup), quorum vanishes mid-Revoke and each non-leader blocks up
+		// to sessionTTL (60s) in session.Close(), exceeding the cleanup
+		// deadline. On normal session expiry (line ~232), the lease is
+		// already gone on the server side so Revoke returns quickly anyway.
+		session, err = concurrency.NewSession(e.cli, concurrency.WithTTL(e.sessionTTL), concurrency.WithContext(ctx))
 		if err == nil || errors.Cause(err) == e.cli.Ctx().Err() {
 			break forLoop
 		}
diff --git a/dm/tests/lightning_mode/run.sh b/dm/tests/lightning_mode/run.sh
index d414ef7937..dccff345e6 100755
--- a/dm/tests/lightning_mode/run.sh
+++ b/dm/tests/lightning_mode/run.sh
@@ -51,6 +51,43 @@ function run() {
 	run_dm_master_info_log $WORK_DIR/master $MASTER_PORT $cur/conf/dm-master.toml
 	check_rpc_alive $cur/../bin/check_master_online 127.0.0.1:$MASTER_PORT
 
+	# Pre-create Lightning's internal metadata tables. Each dm-worker spawns its
+	# own Lightning instance with the physical backend, and they race to
+	# bootstrap `lightning_metadata.task_meta_v2` / `table_meta` concurrently.
+	# TiDB's DDL schema cache can lag between the concurrent `CREATE TABLE IF
+	# NOT EXISTS` and the follow-up `SELECT`, yielding `Error 1146: Table ...
+	# doesn't exist` on one worker. Creating the tables ahead of time removes
+	# the race. The schemas mirror
+	# br/pkg/lightning/importer/import.go:CreateTaskMetaTable / CreateTableMetadataTable.
+	run_sql_tidb "CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS lightning_metadata;"
+	run_sql_tidb "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS lightning_metadata.task_meta_v2 (
+		task_id BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
+		pd_cfgs VARCHAR(2048) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
+		status  VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+		state   TINYINT(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 COMMENT '0: normal, 1: exited before finish',
+		tikv_source_bytes BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		tiflash_source_bytes BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		tikv_avail BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		tiflash_avail BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		PRIMARY KEY (task_id)
+	);"
+	run_sql_tidb "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS lightning_metadata.table_meta (
+		task_id BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED,
+		table_id BIGINT(64) NOT NULL,
+		table_name VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
+		row_id_base BIGINT(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		row_id_max BIGINT(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		total_kvs_base BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		total_bytes_base BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		checksum_base BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		total_kvs BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		total_bytes BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		checksum BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		status VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+		has_duplicates BOOL NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+		PRIMARY KEY (table_id, task_id)
+	);"
+
 	# start DM task
 	dmctl_start_task "$cur/conf/dm-task-dup.yaml" "--remove-meta"
 	run_dm_ctl_with_retry $WORK_DIR "127.0.0.1:$MASTER_PORT" \