Tamil Nadu CM Stalin slams ECI's SIR as 'vote theft,' calls all-party meet

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin on Monday announced that an all-party meeting will be convened on November 2 to decide the next course of action regarding phase two of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out across 12 states, including Tamil Nadu.

Following the Election Commission of India’s announcement on the revision drive, Stalin held discussions with alliance partners, after which the decision to hold the meeting was made. “We will resist disenfranchisement and defeat vote theft,” he said in a post on X, criticising the ECI’s move to conduct the revision just months before elections and during the November-December monsoon season.

Calling the SIR process “a conspiracy by the ECI to rob citizens of their rights and help the BJP,” Stalin alleged that a similar revision drive in Bihar had led to the removal of large numbers of women, minorities, and members of SC and ST communities from voter lists. “The right to vote is the foundation of democracy. Tamil Nadu will fight against any attempt to murder it, and Tamil Nadu will win,” he added.

In a statement, the DMK accused the BJP-led central government of “dismantling democracy” by influencing autonomous bodies like the Election Commission. It claimed that the Commission’s recent activities, including the Bihar exercise, were “dubious and suspicious,” and said the state government opposed the timing of the SIR amid the monsoon season.

CPI state secretary Veerapandian voiced support for the DMK’s stance, saying his party would not allow voter deletions in the state. “This is not Bihar; this is Tamil Nadu. We will not allow any act that destroys the nation’s unity,” he told reporters.

However, opposition parties welcomed the SIR. The AIADMK said the revision would help correct irregularities in the electoral rolls, while BJP leader and former Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan termed it a “good initiative,” criticising the DMK for opposing it instead of focusing on monsoon preparedness. Tamil Nadu BJP chief Nainar Nagenthran also defended the move, saying such revisions had been carried out since the Nehru era and questioned why Stalin feared the process.

Earlier, on October 26, Stalin had accused the BJP-AIADMK alliance of attempting to “snatch away the voting rights” of the working class, minorities, women, and SCs in Tamil Nadu through the SIR, claiming it was an electoral strategy to manipulate voter lists ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.

With inputs from PTI