Tamil Nadu Minister Warns: Why DMK Fears Voter Purge Amid SIR Battle

Speaking to reporters in Pudukkottai, Regupathy said, "We didn't say there should be no SIR. We only said it shouldn't be done in a hurry. It should be undertaken carefully after the 2026 elections to ensure that no voter's name is missed out."

He alleged that some political parties were "daydreaming" that the DMK's strong vote base could be reduced by using the SIR process to identify and remove voters from DMK-dominated areas. "That will never happen," he said, adding that the party would present this argument before the Supreme Court.

The minister further warned that deleting genuine voters from the list would be dangerous. "We only expressed our concern that real voters should not be deleted -- as happened in Bihar," he said. Regupathy reiterated that the DMK had no reason to include fake voters in the electoral rolls.

"We are only concerned that genuine voters should not be removed. People trust the DMK, and no matter how many allegations are made, they will vote for us. Minister K N Nehru will win his constituency by a huge margin -- both the BJP and the AIADMK know this," he said.

Tamil Nadu's ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Monday moved the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutional validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Electoral Roll and seeking quashing of the October 27 notification of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

It challenged the ECI's orders dated June 24 and October 27, which directed the conduct of SIR.

The SIR and the EC orders, if not set aside, can "arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters" from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, which are part of the basic structure of the Constitution, said the petition filed by DMK's Organising Secretary RS Bharathi.

The plea sought the quashing of the notification on grounds of allegedly being in violation of Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326 of the Constitution of India, as well as provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

The documentation requirements of the directive, lack of due process, as well as the unreasonably short timeline for the said SIR of the Electoral Roll in the state of Tamil Nadu, make this exercise bound to result in the removal of names of lakhs of genuine voters from electoral rolls, leading to their disenfranchisement, the plea alleged.

"A Special Summary Revision (SSR) was conducted in the state of Tamil Nadu between October 2024 and January 6, 2025, which addressed issues such as migration, death and deletion of ineligible voters. Existing electoral roll in Tamil Nadu was updated and published on January 6, 2025, under Special Summary Revision and has been continuously updated since then," it added.

It further said that it is a clear case of constitutional overreach as Article 324 of the Constitution of India, while vesting ECI with superintendence and control over elections, operates only in fields unoccupied by legislation.

According to orders dated October 27 and June 24, the ECI seeks to supplant the existing statutory framework, which already governs the preparation and revision of electoral rolls, the poll panel stated.

Last month, the ECI announced that it would conduct the second phase of SIR across 12 states and Union Territories, with the final voter list to be published on February 7, 2026. The first phase of the SIR was completed in Bihar ahead of the assembly polls.

The upcoming phase will cover Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

- ANI