MADURAI: The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) could have secured 170 seats in the Assembly election if the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was not implemented in the state, said Minister C T R Nirmal Kumar on Saturday.
Addressing media persons, Kumar said, “We are against the SIR exercise." We are the only party which fought against the initiative in Tamil Nadu. We have pointed out several mistakes and deletions.
We even held protests in the state. We will allow protests by organisations against alleged electoral malpractices with regard to electoral rolls, but only after they receive police permission.”
Further, he claimed: “If the SIR exercise had not been implemented, we would have won over 170 seats. When the DMK was in power, its functionaries took charge of the exercise and abruptly removed a lot of voters. Bunches of voter lists were transferred from the DMK offices to the field.”
On the Assembly bypoll results, Kumar said there has been a massive shift of AIADMK voters towards the TVK. “People have voted for the TVK in the Dharapuram constituency, which had been an AIADMK fortress. The party cadre shifted to the TVK, thus pushing it to the third place behind the DMK.”