Chennai: A multi-party meeting chaired by DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, which met in Chennai on Sunday, resolved to approach the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission of India’s decision to roll out the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in 12 States and Union Territories including in the poll-bound Dravidian state. The meeting was attended by the representatives of the ruling DMK, its allies including the Congress and Communists and a host of other political parties.
The principal opposition party AIADMK, its ally the BJP, actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, BJP and a few others chose to boycott the meeting called by Stalin. While the AIADMK and BJP support the SIR, Vijay’s party is opposed to it but did not want to be on the DMK bandwagon.
Assailing the SIR process, the resolution said: “Since the Election Commission does not accept these views, there is no other way but to approach the Supreme Court to uphold the voting rights of all Tamil Nadu voters. This all-party meeting also resolves that the political parties in Tamil Nadu will file a petition in the Supreme Court to save electoral democracy.”
The meeting said when the Bihar SIR case is pending in the Supreme Court, the SIR 2.0 was unacceptable. “This meeting strongly condemns the Election Commission for acting as a puppet of the Union Government and with an authoritarian tendency, despite most political parties in the country opposing this SIR from the very beginning,” the resolution said.
The parties feared what happened in Bihar – where ‘eligible’ voters were removed – might be replicated in Tamil Nadu.
“As per Section 169 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the electoral roll revision SIR must be done only by publishing a formal notification in the Union Government’s Gazette. The Election Commission unilaterally issuing the notification without following that procedure is against the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act. The SIR notification issued now is itself illegal. Even though the Supreme Court ordered that the Aadhaar card should be included as the 12th document, the notification dated 27.10.2025 issued by the Election Commission now mentions Aadhaar in an unclear manner. There is no integrity in the Election Commission’s voter verification; there is no transparency,” the resolution charged.
There are no proper answers or explanations for fundamental questions like whether a voter needs to provide a document or not, and to whom it should be-provided. This confusion will only be used to remove eligible voters. “The Election Commission's haste itself raises more suspicion for us,” it said.
Besides, the period fixed as the Enumeration period, from 04.11.2025 to 04.12.2025, is the peak period of the Northeast monsoon in Tamil Nadu. Heavy rain and bad weather are expected during this time. Since the majority of voters in Tamil Nadu are rural people - farmers, they will not have time to receive, fill, and return the Enumeration Forms. There is a reasonable fear that a large number of voters will be deleted in this process.
