Ruling party obstructing rolls revision by usurping BLOs role in Chennai, alleges Jayakumar

CHENNAI: AIADMK organising secretary and former minister D Jayakumar on Thursday alleged that members of the DMK were interfering in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out in Chennai.

Jayakumar said the SIR exercise is intended to identify and remove duplicate entries and the names of deceased voters from the electoral roll, but claimed that DMK cadre were “acting in an abusive manner” and obstructing the process. He said that during the earlier SIR conducted in 2002, nearly forty-nine lakh names were removed from the rolls, and the DMK “remained silent” then without opposing the exercise.

He also alleged that Chennai Corporation Commissioner and District Electoral Officer J Kumaragurubaran was biased, stating that the officer had “slipped from his position” by failing to ensure the smooth conduct of the verification process. According to him, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) alone are authorised to distribute and receive SIR forms, which has been violated. He alleged that DMK members were directly involved, which he said was against Election Commission norms.

Jayakumar further claimed that the number of forms issued had increased abnormally in the Sholinganallur constituency—from 13 per cent on day one, to 39 per cent on day two, and 56 per cent on day three—alleging this was possible only because forms were not handled exclusively by BLOs.

He said the AIADMK would file a complaint with the Election Commission against the Commissioner, and warned that the party would also organise a protest against him.