The DMK on Wednesday backed the Rahul Gandhi-led INDIA Bloc protest demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation while questioning the Congress leader's silence on deletions in Tamil Nadu under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in the lead up to 2026 Assembly Elections.
DMK leader TKS Elangovan on Wednesday defended the Lok Sabha LoP's agitation over the SIR-CEC issue in Delhi, saying the government does not want him to protest because it wants to govern the country according to its wishes and not according to the law.
Elangovan said "manipulation" of elections had taken place because of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and that he must resign, which, he said, was the demand of Rahul Gandhi and other opposition parties.
It is the right of citizens to agitate in a democracy as the people are the bosses, the DMK leader told reporters in Chennai.
When the government does something wrong, it is the people who have to fight against it and that is their right as they elected the government, he contended.
Elangovan was responding to a question on police detaining leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, in the national capital during protests seeking Kumar's resignation.
"So, if the CEC plays a role in favour of the ruling party, that is undemocratic. They should respect law. That is why Rahul Gandhi was agitating yesterday. But this government does not want him to agitate, because they want to they run the country not according to law, by but by their wishes. That is the problem," the DMK leader alleged.
"So, they have to come to power, it is not with the support of the people. By manipulating elections. That is what has happened because of Gyanesh Kumar. So, Gyanesh Kumar should resign, that is the demand Rahul Gandhi, Congress party, and other parties are making. They should respect that, and Gyanesh Kumar should resign," the former MP added.
However, the DMK has also stepped up its criticism of Gandhi over what it describes as his silence on large-scale voter deletions in Tamil Nadu during the SIR of electoral rolls.
DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai, in a post on X, referred to a media report claiming that the SIR exercise significantly impacted the outcome of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election.
Taking a direct swipe at Gandhi with the phrase "Daro Math!" (don't be scared), he pointed out that while the Congress leader had forcefully claimed that elections were "stolen" in Bihar, he remained notably silent on developments in Tamil Nadu.
"Most notably, among the 135 constituencies where more than 20,000 voters were deleted, TVK won 84. In the 10 constituencies with more than 80,000 deletions, TVK won all 10," Saravanan claimed, challenging the Congress leader to clarify his position on whether Tamil Nadu and the DMK were affected by the SIR exercise and whether the Election Commission acted fairly.
His comments came a day after INDIA bloc leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, took out a march from Parliament to the Election Commission office in Delhi, demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the SIR process.
In his X post on October 6, Saravanan had labelled Gandhi "duplicitous" and accused him of inconsistent posturing, questioning whether Gandhi was "afraid of @actorvijay" to speak out against the electoral roll revisions in Tamil Nadu.
He had also sought clarification on why Gandhi had not publicly backed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's purported statement demanding the dissolution of all state governments elected following the SIR process.
The DMK's criticism comes amid a sharp political fallout between the party and Congress in Tamil Nadu following the 2026 Assembly election.
The decades-old DMK-Congress alliance collapsed after the polls, with Congress severing ties with its longtime ally to support actor Vijay's TVK in forming the government.
(With inputs from PTI)
