Chennai, Oct 28 (IANS) BJP leader K. Annamalai on Tuesday countered Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s criticism of the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, accusing him of “brazen hypocrisy” and “appalling double standards.”

He said the Chief Minister was attempting to politicise a routine electoral process that has been part of India’s democratic framework for decades.

Reacting to Stalin’s allegation that the SIR was a “BJP-backed conspiracy” to disenfranchise voters, Annamalai said such remarks showed the Chief Minister’s “hollow grasp of democratic procedures.”

He pointed out that electoral roll revisions were not new, having been conducted 13 times between 1952 and 2004. “This is a standard process undertaken by the Election Commission to ensure accuracy. It is surprising that Mr Stalin now finds fault with it,” he said in a post quoting the Chief Minister.

Annamalai also reminded that the DMK had previously demanded similar revisions. “In 2016, the DMK alleged the presence of 57.43 lakh bogus voters. Again, in 2017, it demanded a statewide revision linking Aadhaar to voter IDs and called for door-to-door verification,” he noted.

The former state BJP president added that before the RK Nagar bypoll, Stalin himself had approached the Madras High Court seeking the deletion of the names of deceased and relocated voters. “The sanctity of democracy depends on the integrity of the electoral roll. One hopes the DMK recalls its own stand and avoids another episode of selective amnesia,” Annamalai remarked.

Rejecting Stalin’s claim that conducting the SIR during the monsoon was intended to aid the BJP, Annamalai said, “The Election Commission is an independent body that ensures transparency in every election. Casting aspersions on its process only betrays insecurity.”

With both the DMK and the BJP stepping up their campaigns ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, the war of words over the voter roll revision has deepened political polarisation in Tamil Nadu, setting the stage for a fierce battle over electoral credibility and accountability.

–IANS

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