Shameful that AIADMK is supporting SIR in Supreme Court: Stalin

DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday slammed the AIADMK for filing a petition in the Supreme Court supporting the Election Commission of India’s (EC) ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls. He said this was shameful.

Addressing a meeting of party’s booth agents in his Kolathur Assembly constituency in Chennai, Mr. Stalin said the DMK cadre had to do more than just ensure the party’s victory in next year’s Assembly election. “Usually, during election, we entrust you with the responsibility of ensuring the party’s victory. But this time, an additional responsibility has been placed on you — to protect the people’s right to vote,” he said, adding, “From November 4 to December 4, only one month has been allotted for the process. Within that month, every voter’s application form — the form used to enrol oneself as a voter — must be completed.”

Criticising the AIADMK, Mr. Stalin said the party was not functioning like an ‘Opposition party’ and warned it could soon wither away and not even exist as a ‘splinter party’. “They have taken their party to Delhi, pledged it there, accepted all the conditions imposed for SIR and are supporting it. While all other parties across the country are going to the Supreme Court, opposing the SIR, the AIADMK here is going to there in support of it. This is a national disgrace,” he remarked.

Pointing out that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had been raising several allegations regarding ‘Vote Theft’ with evidence, Mr. Stalin said, “Not even a single genuine voter should be excluded from the voter rolls. That is why the DMK has gone to court. We are raising the issue in the people’s forums as well. Already on October 27, the DMK invited leaders of our friendly alliance parties for a meeting and gave several suggestions. Following that, on November 2, we conducted an all-party meeting in Tamil Nadu — inviting every registered party without any discrimination, even including those who oppose or criticise us.” He said speaking about SIR had become unavoidable and that the EC had forced everyone to “prove that we were Indian citizens”.

He added: “The EC has placed this huge burden on us. It has created a situation where people’s voting rights themselves are at risk. You know very well who created such a situation — the Union government.”

‘DMK sabotaging SIR’

Speaking to reporters at Salem Airport, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami said the DMK and its alliance opposed the SIR because dead voters’ names were not removed for many years. He contended that for 21 years, the SIR was not done, leaving thousands of dead, shifted, and fake voters’ names on the voter list. He also alleged that the SIR in several places, including Chennai, was progressing slowly due to interference from the DMK. He also charged many officials of working against SIR on alleged oral instructions from the DMK.

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami addressing the media at the Salem airport on Friday.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Stating that there was no confusion in the enumeration forms, Mr. Palaniswami said that to fill the forms, qualified Booth Level Officers (BLOs) should be appointed. The District Election Officers were not working properly and had not appointed qualified BLOs, he alleged

“Many times, the AIADMK took up the issues of fake voters to the District Election Officers concerned but no action was taken. Due to this, the AIADMK moved to court and removed 31,000 names from the voter list in R.K. Nagar constituency and 10,000 names from the voter list in Karur constituency. In Chennai, in every constituency, around 50,000 dead or fake voters’ names are in the voter list,” he alleged.