TIRUCHY: After names of several hundreds of people were deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, Muslim organisations in Tamil Nadu, which faces Assembly elections next year, are playing an active part in the voter-roll verification process that is currently under way in the state to ensure nobody from any community is left out.
In Tiruchy, Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ) has set up camps in at least 30 mosques. Volunteers, who have downloaded PDFs of the 2002 and 2005 voter rolls, entered the details into Excel sheets, verify data and help people in filling SIR forms. "This work should have been done by the election commission. Instead, many uneducated residents are expected to fill forms," said S. Muhammed Bilal, vice president, TNTJ Tiruchy.
"We are doing this because we are keen not to miss out due to lack of details from 2002 and 2005. After December 7, when the draft rolls would be released, we will check the list to see if names of any eligible voter is deleted and file claims, if any. That will involve far more work," he added.
N Muhammed Gani, president of the jamath in Beemanagar said migration is a main issue as far as data accuracy is concerned. "People who lived in Dindigul in 2002 may have shifted to Tiruchy now, finding their serial number or booth is a challenge," he explained.
Besides jamaths, cadres of political parties representing the community are also active on the ground. The Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) is running camps in every ward. "About 80% of residents here are tenants. Families search for old records across multiple towns and give up because they don't know where to begin, we help them find." said J. Mohammed Rafiq, MMK spokesperson. Each camp can handle only around 50 applications a day.
The trend is similar across western districts. In Coimbatore, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is conducts camps in the evenings on week days and full-day camps on the weekend in Podanur, Karumbukadai, GM Nagar, Saramedu and Kuniyamuthur. "Our aim is simple - no one should lose their vote due to lack of awareness or mistakes in filling SIR forms," said M. Abdul Hakkim, district secretary.
In Tirupattur and Vellore, MMK is holding Sunday camps at Ambur's Reddy Thoppu, Pudumanai, Mottukollai and Thutthipatti, drawing large crowds.
Most of the mosques in the two districts have pasted printouts of the 2002 rolls on their walls so that people can check old records with help from volunteers.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has deployed nearly 1,000 volunteers across its 52 district units and tapped 8,000 jamaaths.
In a resolution passed on November 19 in Tiruchy, party president KM Khader Mohideen urged the Chief Electoral Officer to ensure inclusion of overseas voters, especially thousands of Tamil Nadu Muslims working abroad who often appear inconsistently in local rolls. IUML has asked Jamaats to collect accurate details and appealed to overseas residents to share voter information with their home villages.
The Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi (MJK) has organised more than 40 camps across Tamil Nadu and operates a help line in Chennai that receives 300-400 SIR-related calls daily. In Madurai, TNTJ branches have trained office-bearers across 36 units.
(With Inputs from S Kumaresan @ Chennai, Dheepthi OJ @ Vellore, M Saravanan @ Coimbatore, V Vignesh @ Madurai)