Amid Bihar roll revision, Chidambaram flags 6.5 lakh voter addition in Tamil Nadu

Amid a raging row over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has claimed that 6.5 lakh "migrant workers" were added as voters in Tamil Nadu, calling it "alarming" and "illegal".

Accusing the Election Commission of trying to change the "electoral character" of states, the Rajya Sabha MP said the SIR exercise in Bihar was getting "curiouser" by the day.

At the centre of Chidambaram's argument is the ECI's move to drop 65 lakh voters from the draft electoral rolls, which includes 36 lakh electors who have either migrated permanently or were untraceable.

The Congress leader has sought to link it with the addition of voters in Tamil Nadu, which goes to polls next year and faces the prospect of a similar Bihar-like exercise.

"While 65 lakh voters are in danger of being disenfranchised in Bihar, report of adding 6.5 lakh persons as voters in Tamil Nadu is alarming and patently illegal," the former Home Minister tweeted, tagging the state's Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

"Calling them 'permanently migrated' is an insult to the migrant workers and a gross interference in the right of the electorate of Tamil Nadu to elect a government of its choice," he further said.

CHIDAMBARAM CLAIMS ABUSE OF POWER BY POLL BODY

Chidambaram questioned why should a migrant worker not return to Bihar or their home state to vote in the respective state assembly elections.

"A person to be enrolled as a voter must have a fixed and permanent legal home. The migrant worker has such a home in Bihar (or another state). How can he/she be enrolled as a voter in Tamil Nadu?" he said.

The senior Congress leader, who has vehemently criticised the recent voter list revision exercise in poll-bound Bihar, accused the ECI of "abusing" its powers.

"If the migrant worker's family has a permanent home in Bihar and lives in Bihar, how can the migrant worker be considered as 'permanently migrated' to Tamil Nadu?" he further said.

Chidambaram asserted that this abuse of powers by the poll body must be fought politically and legally.

The addition of "guest workers" to the Tamil Nadu voter list has also been opposed by the ruling DMK as well as regional parties.

"This is a problem in Tamil Nadu as they came to work here as guest workers. But giving them voter IDs in Tamil Nadu will result in political change in the future," DMK general secretary Duraimurugan told reporters.

ROW OVER BIHAR SIR

The opposition's main concern over the SIR in BIhar is that it would disenfranchise a large number of the 7.89 crore existing electors in Bihar.

However, the Election Commission has stated that large-scale additions and deletions to the electoral rolls over the last 20 years have increased the possibility of duplicate entries in the roll. Thus, an intensive revision of the electoral rolls was required.

- Ends

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