Chennai, Oct 27 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin on Monday said he has convened an all-party meeting on November 2 to decide the next course of action on phase two of Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls across 12 states including Tamil Nadu.
Following the ECI’s announcement on beginning the SIR, he held discussions with his alliance partners here on Monday evening, and on the basis of the meeting it was decided to convene an all-party meet on 2 November to decide the next course of action, he said.
“We will resist disenfranchisement and defeat vote theft,” Stalin said in a post on the social media platform ‘X’.
“To carry out Special Intensive Revision just months before the election, and especially during the monsoon months of November and December, brings serious practical difficulties. To conduct SIR in a hasty and opaque manner is nothing but a conspiracy by the ECI to rob citizens of their rights and help the BJP,” he said.
In Bihar, large numbers of women, minorities and people from SC and ST communities were removed from the electoral rolls, and the absence of transparency has fuelled serious suspicion in the public mind.
“The right to vote is the foundation of democracy. Tamil Nadu will fight against any attempt to murder it, and Tamil Nadu will win,” the Chief Minister said in the post.
In a release here the DMK said it was the usual practice of the BJP government at the Centre to continue to discredit democracy and to dismantle it. Accordingly, it was bending autonomous bodies to its will. “In particular, the activities of the ECI were not only controversial, but also suspicious,” it claimed.
The sole task of the Election Commission was to conduct proper and transparent elections. But recently, the EC has been conducting “dubious elections” and the Bihar poll was a clear example.
“We have seen that SIR in Bihar was only a conspiracy to remove genuine voters,” it said and accused the BJP government of “instigating anti-democratic act.” It was difficult to carry out such a huge exercise during the North-East monsoon in the state. “Why should this be done in a hurry? It should be done without any procedural problems. It is not right to start doing this now with the elections due in April. Therefore, we oppose the SIR” the release said.
CPI state secretary Veerapandian said his party would not allow the removal of voters from the electoral rolls in the state. “It should be understood that this is not Bihar; this is Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu will not allow any action that destroys the unity of India,” he told reporters here.
The opposition AIADMK, however, welcomed the revision and said the Commission should take up the drive in a transparent and systematic manner. “All irregularities in the current voters’ list should be corrected,” former AIADMK minister D Jayakumar said in a release here.
“SIR is a good initiative. Instead of criticising it, the DMK government should focus on preparing for the Northeast monsoon,” former Governor and BJP leader Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan said.
Speaking to reporters here, she sought to know why the ruling DMK was afraid of SIR. “The Chief Minister is jittery about SIR. He is not bothered about the rains but only about SIR,” she said.
In Sivaganga, TN BJP chief Nainar Nagenthran told reporters that SIR was a process that was followed since the Nehru era. “Why is Chief Minister Stalin opposing it? Is he afraid of defeat at the hustings?” Nagenthran asked.
On October 26, Stalin had charged the opposition BJP-AIADMK combine with trying to win election through SIR by “snatching away the voting rights” of people.
In a letter to party workers, he pointed out to the Election Commission announcing that SIR will be implemented in Tamil Nadu from next week and the controversy surrounding the EC’s exercise in Bihar, where “65 lakh people lost their voting rights.” “The BJP and its ally AIADMK are estimating that they can win (the 2026 Assembly polls) by removing the names of the working class people, SCs, minorities and women through SIR. ” “Those who don’t have the strength to face people in the electoral field and thinking that they can win by snatching away people’s voting rights–it will only end up as a miscalculation as far as Tamil Nadu is concerned,” he had said. PTI JSP JSP ROH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.