CHENNAI: Reiterating AIADMK’s support for the SIR of electoral rolls, party organisation secretary D Jayakumar on Monday said if DMK goes to the Supreme Court to halt the SIR, the AIADMK will also approach the apex court seeking its implementation.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai, Jayakumar alleged that the DMK is banking on bogus votes to win elections and hence SIR becomes a threat to them. “A booth-level officer can visit 300 houses in a month. The time allotted for the SIR is sufficient,” he said.
Responding to concerns raised during the all-party meeting chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin — that the SIR could be used to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Tamil Nadu — Jayakumar dismissed the claim as an attempt to divert public attention.
“If there are grievances in the SIR process, the DMK and its allies can approach the Election Commission or the Supreme Court. But spreading fear and rumours among the public for political mileage is unfair,” he said.“During the 2004 revision, around 49 lakh names were deleted. Similarly, this revision will remove the names of dead voters and duplicate entries. No one will lose their voting rights,” he said.
He further said the AIADMK had earlier petitioned the Election Commission to remove dead and duplicate voters but received no adequate response. “In Chennai constituencies, our random checks found several such entries. Based on our representation, 31,000 names were deleted from the electoral rolls of the RK Nagar constituency alone,” he added.