CHENNAI: The Special Intensive Revision drive (SIR), which was ‘brought in haste’, was not needed now, and it will only confuse everyone, TNCC chief K Selvaperunthagai claimed on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters in suburban Sriperumbudur, after attending the party's meeting on SIR, the Congress leader said SIR was not required for now. “It was brought in haste during the monsoon period in Tamil Nadu. The BJP government and the Election Commission are trying to create confusion,” he claimed.
The teachers and anganwadi staff, who were drafted for the poll revision work, could turn up for duty only after 2 pm. They would work for about three hours, and go home, he said, hinting that the revision exercise might not be full-fledged.
“The commission claimed that a similar exercise was carried out in 2003. Why were the details removed from its website?” he asked.
Selvaperunthagai called upon the voters to remain vigilant and make sure their names were reflected in the electoral rolls. “They should not allow anyone to vote in their names or allow the north Indian names to be entered in the voters' list,” he said.
The Congress had petitioned the Chief Electoral Officer on November 5 to suspend the ongoing SIR due to paucity of time and absence of a final booth list, he said.
Also, he slammed actor-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam for alleging that the state government and police imposed restrictions on that party, and said on several occasions he was denied permission to stage agitations and was arrested over 20 times by the DMK government.
“But this doesn't mean one should criticise the state government or police, who were doing their duty. As a political party leader, he had the responsibility to take up people's cause and was arrested over 20 times,” Selvaperunthagai said.