CHENNAI: Nine political parties, including the ruling TVK and the principal Opposition party in the Assembly, the DMK, walked out of an all-party meeting chaired by Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik on Thursday, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The meeting was convened to discuss the Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls, scheduled to begin on November 12.
A total of 13 recognised political parties had been invited to the meeting. The DMK, Congress, TVK, CPI, CPM, VCK, NTK, AAP and DMDK staged the walkout, demanding the CEC’s resignation. The AIADMK, BJP and National People’s Party participated in the meeting, while the BSP was not represented.
After the walkout, representatives of the parties criticised the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alleging irregularities in the deletion of voters’ names.
Energy Resources Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar said his party had opposed the SIR from the outset and organised protests across Tamil Nadu against the exercise. He alleged that young people and women were among those whose names had been deleted from the electoral rolls.
"Had these deletions not occurred, the TVK would have won 160 constituencies," he claimed.
The minister said the errors committed during the SIR should first be rectified and reiterated his party’s demand for the CEC’s resignation.
DMK leader I Paranthamen said the parties had raised questions about discrepancies in the SIR process and demanded to know how and when they would be rectified.
He said the Election Commission was urging people to achieve 100% voter turnout while, at the same time, making it difficult for eligible voters to have their names included in the electoral rolls.
The DMK had already adopted a resolution seeking the CEC’s resignation, Paranthamen said, adding that major political parties had lost confidence in him. He demanded that the CEC either resign voluntarily or face steps towards his removal.
Paranthamen said the DMK had also opposed the SIR in Bihar and educated people about the exercise. The party would support initiatives undertaken on democratic principles, he added.
Meanwhile, former AIADMK minister D Jayakumar, who attended the meeting, described it as a routine annual exercise to discuss the inclusion of new voters and the deletion of deceased voters.
He said 97 lakh voters had been removed from Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls during the SIR and that his party had sought a review of the deletions. These included 55 lakh voters reportedly removed on the grounds that they had shifted residence, four lakh duplicate registrations and 13 lakh voters whose names appeared on the rolls of two constituencies.
Jayakumar said it was the Election Commission’s responsibility to address doubts about its functioning and described walking out of a meeting as a democratic right. Referring to electronic voting machines, he said some parties praised them when they won elections but criticised them when they lost.