CHENNAI: DMK president and former chief minister M K Stalin has written to President Droupadi Murmu seeking parliamentary action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into the deletion of voters in Tamil Nadu post the exercise.
In the letter dated October 26 with data supporting his allegations, the former CM alleged that constituencies with larger voter deletions had witnessed electoral outcomes favourable to the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), while the DMK had suffered in some of its traditional strongholds.
The DMK leader cited constituency-wise data to argue his case.
According to the data, the TVK won two of the 19 constituencies where voter deletions were below 10,000, while the DMK won seven, the AIADMK six and other parties four. In constituencies with 10,000 to 20,000 deletions, the TVK won 22 of 80 seats, compared to 20 by the DMK, 24 by the AIADMK and 14 by other parties.
In 66 constituencies with voter deletions between 20,000 and 30,000, the TVK won 32 seats, while the DMK won 21, the AIADMK 11 and other parties, two.
In the 37 constituencies with 30,000 to 50,000 deletions, the TVK won 24 seats, the DMK eight and the AIADMK, five.
In the 22 constituencies where deletions ranged from 50,000 to 80,000, the TVK won 18 seats, while the DMK won three and the AIADMK, one. Most strikingly, the TVK won all 10 constituencies where more than 80,000 electors had been deleted, Stalin wrote.
The TVK that formed the government had won only 24 of the 99 constituencies where fewer than 20,000 electors were deleted – which is approximately one in four seats. In contrast, it won 52 of the 69 constituencies where deletions exceeded 30,000 – or more than three-fourths, the DMK leader stated.
The SIR struck the hardest precisely where the DMK’s support was most, Stalin said, alleging that the pattern could not be dismissed as a coincidence and that the deletions may have been intended to undermine his party’s electoral prospects.
Stressing that “the right to vote is the foundation on which every other institution of our Republic rests”, the DMK leader alleged that the SIR had undermined constitutional guarantees and electoral fairness.
CEC Kumar had taken decisions unilaterally, in the name of the Election Commission of India (ECI), despite the existence of two other ECs, he said.
Seeking the President’s intervention, Stalin urged her to refer the allegations against the CEC to Parliament, direct the ECI to preserve and disclose relevant records, and ensure an independent forensic audit of the electoral roll database, including changes made to it.
He also called for the SIR to be cancelled in entirety across TN and for the pre-SIR electoral roll to be restored, pending a lawful revision process that provides adequate time, individual notice and a hearing to every affected elector.