Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin during a meeting at DMK headquarters, in Chennai.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chennai: Terming the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls as a "conspiracy" to rob the people of Tamil Nadu of “their right to vote”, the ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) on Monday appealed to all political parties to oppose the exercise and be “vigilant to prevent disenfranchisement of voters".
The SPA comprising Congress, Left, VCK, MDMK, IUML, and other parties also convened an all-party meeting on November 2 to discuss the issue and decide the next course of action. The alliance said the exercise should not be done hastily and that adequate time must be given.
The opposition parties such as AIADMK and BJP are unlikely to participate as they have welcomed the conduct of SIR and accused the DMK of opposing the exercise only to hide its "failures" in governance. AIADMK said it “wholeheartedly” welcomes SIR and appealed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct the exercise in a transparent manner.
In a joint statement after an urgent meeting chaired by DMK President and Chief Minister M K Stalin here, the SPA accused the BJP-led Centre of continuously engaging in actions that threaten the democratic principles.
“In particular, the functioning of the Election Commission has not only become controversial but also suspicious. The sole responsibility of the Election Commission is to conduct free, fair, transparent, and honest elections,” the statement said.
“However, in recent times, the commission has been conducting questionable elections through arbitrary orders favouring certain interests. The Bihar election stands as a clear example of this,” it added.
In a social media post, Stalin said, “We will resist disenfranchisement and defeat vote theft.”
The SPA alleged that SIR in Bihar removed genuine voters and took objection to the exercise being conducted in November and December, during the northeast monsoon season.
“Tasks such as submitting photographs and cross-verifying details on the website will pose hardships for the majority of voters. Even after the Supreme Court’s direction, why is the Aadhaar card not accepted as a complete document? Why is our long-standing demand to accept family identity cards as proof being rejected?” the parties asked.
The joint statement also said the SPA suspects that there could be a conspiracy within the process to disenfranchise the people of Tamil Nadu and claimed that in Bihar, the deletions targeted Muslims, Scheduled communities, and women. “Tamil Nadu will not tolerate such conspiracies. Tamil Nadu will unite and resist. We must fight together,” the statement added.