Seeman slams EC for suddenly waking up on roll cleansing

CHENNAI: Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) on Monday staged a protest at the Egmore Rajarathinam Stadium, accusing the Election Commission of irregularities and lack of transparency in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.

Naam Tamilar Katchi chief Coordinator Seeman led the agitation, questioning the credibility of the rolls revision process.

Addressing supporters, Seeman criticised the Election Commission for what he termed years of negligence in maintaining accurate voter lists. He questioned why officials had begun identifying duplicate and bogus voters only now, despite repeated complaints across multiple election cycles. “Did you discover fake votes only in 2024? What were you doing all these years?” he asked.

Reacting to the BJP-led Centre’s recent claim that over 4,500 bogus voters were found in Chief Minister MK Stalin’s Kolathur constituency, Seeman said the selective highlighting of issues in one constituency

The BJP targeting CM’s Kolathur constituency for alleged 4,500 bogus voters raises suspicions as they are selectively highlighting issues in one constituency, leaving out a whole lot, says Seeman

raised doubts about the impartiality of the exercise. He alleged that political motives were driving the rolls revision rather than a genuine effort to ensure clean electoral rolls.

He further charged that political parties were enabling vote bank politics by allowing non-residents and migrant workers to be added to voter lists without proper verification. “The vote is the public’s last weapon. If that is tampered with, democracy fails,” he said.

Naam Tamilar Katchi demanded that the Election Commission of India carry out the SIR process in a transparent, unbiased manner. The party urged that the exercise should be free from political influence to safeguard belief in the electoral system and democracy on the whole.