Staff Reporter / New Delhi
An all-party meeting chaired by Chief Minister and DMK President M.K. Stalin on Saturday demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) immediately withdraw the Special Intensive Revision (S.I.R.) of Electoral Rolls, calling it illegal and anti-democratic.
The resolution passed at the meeting warned that if the ECI failed to halt the process, all political parties in Tamil Nadu would jointly move the Supreme Court.
The parties condemned the ECI for proceeding with the S.I.R. while a similar case from Bihar is still pending before the Supreme Court. They alleged that the revision exercise in Bihar was used to delete minority and anti-BJP votes, accusing the ECI of acting as a “puppet of the Union Government.”
The resolution said the October 27 notification on S.I.R. violated Section 169 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, as it was issued without a Gazette notification. It also criticized the “lack of clarity” in the use of Aadhaar for voter verification and termed the process “opaque and confusing.”
The meeting further objected to the timing of the S.I.R. between November 4 and December 4, coinciding with the northeast monsoon, saying the schedule would prevent rural voters from participating and could lead to large-scale deletions.
The parties urged the Election Commission to function impartially and ensure a level playing field. “The current S.I.R. move undermines democracy and threatens the voting rights of the people of Tamil Nadu,” the resolution stated.