SIR in Tamil Nadu is BJP’s ploy to facilitate AIADMK’s victory, alleges Stalin

The Tamil Nadu CM said said that BJP’s “daydream” of governing the state through its proxy or on its own will “never come true” as long as the DMK exists.

Chennai: DMK President M K Stalin on Tuesday alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu is part of the BJP’s “ploy to facilitate” the AIADMK’s victory in the 2026 Assembly polls by removing the working class, women, Dalits, and minority communities from the voters’ list. 

Addressing a training programme on booth management for over 2,500 DMK functionaries at Mamallapuram near here, Stalin said the BJP’s “daydream” of governing Tamil Nadu through its proxy (read AIADMK) or on its own will “never come true” as long as the DMK exists.

He also accused the BJP of trying “new shortcuts” to win elections in the state despite knowing that these attempts would only end in failure. 

Terming the 2026 Assembly polls as the one that will protect Tamil Nadu from the “AIADMK-BJP gang”, the Chief Minister said the reason why he continues to emphasise winning next year’s election was important because enemies from within and outside have “ganged up” to destroy the state, its language, and pride.

At the same time, Stalin expressed the hope that the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance’s (SPA) winning streak since 2019 polls will continue next year as well.

After the training programme, the functionaries will go across the state to hold meetings about the importance of booths, especially in the context of 2026 elections, to prepare booth agents battle ready. The training session was attended by MPs, MLAs, district secretaries, taluk secretaries, and heads of units at the city and town levels. 

Devoting a major portion of his speech on the SIR, which will begin in Tamil Nadu next week, Stalin said the RSS-BJP’s “tactic” of intimidation through the exercise will not work in Tamil Nadu. He recalled that the DMK and its allies opposed the SIR in Bihar as it disenfranchised over 6.5 million people and said the “BJP’s puppet ECI” was trying the same here. 

“They are thinking that if they remove working-class people, Dalits, minorities, and women from the voters’ list via SIR, they and their ally AIADMK can win. They dream to win the state through disenfranchisement as they don’t have the courage to meet people,” Stalin added. 

While reiterating that the DMK was not opposed to revision of voters list, Stalin said the party was only insisting that the exercise must be done in a “fair and transparent manner” and not in haste. 

SIR is the latest tool in the hands of the DMK to project the AIADMK-BJP alliance as the combine that works against the interests of Tamil Nadu ahead of the 2026 elections. Stalin has been telling the electorate that if the AIADMK comes to power after next year’s elections, the party leader Edappadi K Palaniswami will completely surrender before the BJP and “mortgage” the state’s rights. The DMK will be locked in a triangular contest with AIADMK-BJP alliance and Vijay's TVK which is gaining strength due to the actor's popularity.   

Stalin also told his party functionaries that the DMK possessed the legal and political strength to fight the ECI even if it proceeded unlawfully and asked them to monitor the SIR process.

“No genuine voter should be off the list and this should be your responsibility. Since the AIADMK has mortgaged its own party rights to the BJP, it has no time to fight such issues. The job of protecting voters’ rights lies with DMK and its allies,” he added.