CHENNAI: The ruling DMK on Wednesday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to postpone the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, citing practical difficulties and alleged procedural anomalies. The party’s allies — the Congress, CPM, CPI, and VCK — also echoed similar concerns. However, the AIADMK and BJP extended their support for the exercise.
The views were expressed during a meeting of recognised political parties convened by Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik at the state secretariat.
After the meeting, DMK organisation secretary R S Bharathi told reporters that the ECI had announced the SIR in haste, just months ahead of the Assembly elections. “The northeast monsoon is active, and the meteorological department has predicted surplus rainfall.
Moreover, Christmas and Pongal holidays are approaching, when many people travel to their native places. During this period, enumerators may record ‘door locked’. The timing of the SIR seems to have been chosen with an ulterior motive,” he alleged.
Bharathi further claimed that there were suspicions of an attempt to replicate the electoral exercise conducted in Bihar.
Not against SIR but there are practical issues: DMK
“If the ECI values the views of TN political parties, it should postpone SIR,” RS Bharathiss said. However, he clarified that the DMK was not opposed to the revision itself, noting that the party had often called for the purification of electoral rolls.
In its written representation to the CEO, the DMK stated, “We are not casting aspersions on the ECI. But as stakeholders in the electoral process and representatives of the people, we are highlighting the practical difficulties in conducting this SIR and the risk of deleting eligible voters while adding ineligible ones.”
AIADMK organisation secretary D Jayakumar and party MP I S Inbadurai said their party’s random checks in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Royapuram revealed hundreds of duplicate entries and names of deceased voters. “In the Erode East bypoll, 40,000 names belonged to voters who no longer resided in the constituency but remained on the rolls. To address such discrepancies, we support the SIR.
The ECI can extend the deadline if needed due to the festive season,” they said. Responding to the DMK’s charge that the ECI was acting as a puppet of the union government, they pointed out that the DMK, when part of the centre, had supported similar exercises in 2002 and 2005. BJP state vice-president Karu Nagarajan said the aim of the SIR was to ensure a clean and accurate voter list.
“People should cooperate with the ECI to prevent bogus voting,” he said. Former TNCC president K V Thangkabalu noted that a case related to the SIR was pending before the Supreme Court, with the next hearing scheduled for November 4. “Despite this, the ECI has announced the SIR to begin on the same day. The duration given is too short, and the inclusion of migrant workers as voters in Tamil Nadu must be prevented,” he said.
CPI leaders A Arumuga Nainar and K Samuelraj also opposed the revision. They alleged that the exercise was a deliberate attempt to distort democracy and said the short notice exposed “an ulterior motive.”
NTK headquarters secretary Senthil raised concerns over the inclusion of migrant workers in TN’s electoral rolls. “ECI said the voters deleted from the Bihar rolls will be enrolled in other states where they migrated. We have already complained that the BJP is attempting to gain power in TN by inserting voters from northern states. Allowing temporary migrant workers to vote and then return to their states threatens democratic integrity,” he said.
Representatives from the CPM, DMDK, VCK, Aam Aadmi Party, and Bahujan Samaj Party also participated in the meeting.
