NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday said that voter deletions during the electoral-roll revision were wrong but said it was not clear that they were responsible for the TVK’s victory or the DMK’s defeat in the recent Tamil Nadu assembly elections.Speaking to reporters in Karaikudi, Chidambaram said voters whose names were removed should have remained on the rolls, but maintained that claims about the deletions determining the election outcome needed to be established.“They (ECI) have removed them (voters). That is wrong. Those names should have been included. But it is not apparent to me that TVK won and DMK lost only because of that,” news agency PTI quoted Chidambaram as saying.His remarks came amid the ongoing political dispute over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and reports of differences within the three-member poll panel over aspects of the exercise. The ECI has said differing views and observations are part of institutional deliberations and that its decisions follow statutory procedures.Chidambaram said the opposition would decide its next course of action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at upcoming Congress Working Committee and INDIA bloc meetings if Kumar does not resign. Options, he said, could include approaching the Supreme Court or moving a removal resolution in Parliament.He reiterated Rahul Gandhi’s demands for Kumar’s resignation, registration of an FIR and his arrest, and referred to nationwide protests held after the deadline set by the opposition for the CEC to step down.
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On the question of fresh elections, Chidambaram ruled out re-polling for the completed Tamil Nadu elections, saying the Constitution does not provide for re-elections in such circumstances.He instead called for an immediate halt to SIR in other states, restoration of 13.3 crore voter names that the Congress alleges were deleted across 20 states, and a return to the regular annual electoral-roll revision process. The demands are part of the Congress’ wider campaign against the SIR exercise.
