ChennaiNovember 3, 2025 05:22 AM IST
First published on: Nov 2, 2025 at 08:54 PM IST
A multi-party meeting chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday decided to move the Supreme Court against the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, calling the exercise “anti-democratic” and warning that it risked disenfranchising voters ahead of the 2026 Assembly election.
A total of 44 political parties attended the meeting, including the DMDK of late actor-politician Vijayakanth, which is not part of any alliance. The AIADMK and the BJP were not invited. Actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), S Ramadoss’s PMK, and the AMMK of TTV Dhinakaran, who had recently broken away from the NDA, were invited but chose not to attend.
In a resolution adopted at the meeting, parties urged the Election Commission to abandon the revision process, arguing that the SIR was being carried out despite the Supreme Court not yet delivering its verdict in a case on the exercise in Bihar. “The SIR is unacceptable… It should be conducted only after removing the shortcomings… and with adequate time after the 2026 Assembly elections,” the resolution said.
The resolution accused the EC of acting as “a puppet of the BJP-led government at the Centre” and claimed that the revision could strip minorities and Opposition-leaning voters of their franchise. “There is no doubt that the SIR, planned unilaterally… is aimed at depriving people of their voting rights and burying democracy deep,” it said.
The DMK-led government also pointed to administrative and climatic constraints, noting that the North-East monsoon would coincide with the revision period between November 4 and December 4, making it difficult for rural voters and officials to comply. “The exercise appears to be intended to remove a substantial number of voters from the electoral roll,” the resolution said.
Vijay’s TVK, which did not attend the meeting, released a sharply worded statement backing the legal challenge to the SIR but rejecting the DMK’s political messaging around it. “Earlier, when the notification for special intensive electoral roll revision was issued in Bihar, TVK strongly opposed it and warned about its underlying intent. Just as we cautioned then, lakhs of voters were removed from the rolls in Bihar,” the party said.
“Opposition parties have continuously alleged that certain targeted votes, including those of religious minorities, were removed… A case regarding the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is pending before the Supreme Court,” the statement said.
“How can the conduct of the second phase be justified?” it asked, noting that Tamil Nadu has 6.36 crore voters. “How is it possible to verify the names of all these voters within just 30 days?” While backing a united Opposition front on the matter, the TVK accused the DMK of “political hypocrisy” and alleged that the ruling party was attempting to “use this issue for its own political gains”.
“It was our party that first raised its voice against SIR. Was the DMK asleep at that time, or in a state of amnesia due to its covert ties with the BJP-led Union government?” the TVK statement said. It also questioned why the DMK had not passed a resolution in the Assembly, noting that Kerala’s legislature has already passed one opposing the SIR.
The TVK said the existing electoral roll revision mechanism should continue, offering a seven-point procedural checklist that includes correcting errors through prescribed forms, adding new voters and removing deceased or fake names, accepting Aadhaar as an age and identity document, supplying machine-readable rolls to polling agents, and publishing the final roll online with searchable access.
The DMK resolution also had similar concerns, particularly around Aadhaar verification, alleging that the EC had not clarified document requirements and procedures. “It seems that there is a plan to remove the names of genuine voters,” it said.
