DMK-led alliance to stage State-wide agitation against SIR on November 11

The DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance would stage protests at all district headquarters from 10 a.m. on November 11 to condemn the Election Commission (EC) for carrying out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the State, despite opposition to the exercise.

The alliance termed the EC “autocratic” and a “puppet of the BJP-led Union government”.

Leaders of political parties in the alliance alleged that the SIR was an “attempt by the BJP-led Union government to target electors from minority communities and those against the BJP to remove them from the electoral rolls, and to include ineligible electors in the rolls, with the support of the Election Commission”.

Rolling out the SIR in Tamil Nadu and 11 other States/Union Territories “without resolving issues that cropped up during the SIR in Bihar” undermined democracy and the voting rights of the people, the leaders said. The parties raised suspicion over the hurried manner in which the EC was carrying out the exercise. “The Election Commission is planning to remove even genuine electors from the rolls in Tamil Nadu through SIR,” they said.

A joint statement was issued by leaders of the DMK, Dravidar Kazhagam, Congress, MDMK, CPI(M), CPI, IUML, VCK, MNM, MMK, KMDK, and Tamilaga Valvurimai Katchi on Thursday regarding the agitation planned for November 11. They said the apprehensions that a majority of the electors would be removed during the SIR had been confirmed.

The statement claimed that the booth-level officers (BLOs) had not commenced the distribution of enumeration forms in a majority of places, and added that the coordination between BLOs and booth-level agents had not been effective. “In some places, Tiruppur district in particular, BLOs have been insisting that the enumeration forms be filled in and submitted within a day,” it said.

The leaders underlined that the 2002 and 2005 electoral rolls, published on the EC’s portal, were “incomplete and confusing”. They contended that the EC had rolled out SIR in Tamil Nadu despite a majority of the political parties in the country opposing the exercise from the beginning.

Pointing to the northeast monsoon in the State, they said that since a majority of the electors were from rural areas, they would not get adequate time to fill in the enumeration forms.