CHENNAI: The DMK, on Saturday, decided to petition President Droupadi Murmu seeking the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and a return to the ballot paper system for elections, alleging that public confidence in the electoral process was declining and the Election Commission was becoming increasingly partisan.
A resolution adopted at the DMK MPs' meeting, chaired by party president MK Stalin, said the SIR exercise had been conducted hastily ahead of elections in various States and had facilitated the deliberate deletion of voters.
The DMK MPs meeting also demanded removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyaneshkumar in view of the complaints regarding the SIR and supported the protests by student movements demanding this.
The party demanded that the SIR be scrapped in its entirety and that future elections be conducted on the basis of electoral rolls that existed before the revision. It argued that electoral roll revision should safeguard voting rights rather than become a means of depriving people of them. The resolution said any future revision should be undertaken only after providing adequate time and sufficient opportunities to voters.
The resolution also questioned the credibility of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), citing alleged discrepancies between votes recorded in the machines and the number of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips counted at various places. It said opposition parties, including the DMK, had consistently demanded the counting of all VVPAT slips.
Another resolution strongly condemned the Congress and the TVK, accusing them of adopting double standards on the SIR of electoral rolls. The DMK alleged that the Congress initially stayed away from student-led protests against the SIR and the CEC before joining them in response to growing public support, while selectively opposing the exercise without addressing its implications in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Accusing the Congress of political opportunism for claiming that the SIR was properly conducted in Tamil Nadu, the resolution further charged that the TVK has been reluctant to criticise the CEC, the party's failure to join the INDIA bloc's joint petition in the Supreme Court, and that this amounted to a tacit understanding with the BJP. Condemning both parties for misleading the public through contradictory positions, the meeting warned the Congress against provoking the DMK, which is not part of its alliance.
Two more resolutions at the meeting demanded the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyaneshkumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR and expressed support for student movements protesting against his actions. The resolutions accused the ECI of disenfranchising genuine voters, citing the experiences of Bihar and other States.