Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay-led TVK on Wednesday launched a fresh round of attack on DMK chief MK Stalin, accusing him of being involved in what the party called the "murder of democracy" during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
TVK leader Aadhav Arjuna, in a social media post, alleged that the DMK initially opposed the exercise but later worked in coordination with the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the BJP-led Centre to carry out the voter role revision and deletions in the state.
In a strongly worded statement, Arjuna claimed that the DMK controlled the implementation of the SIR across Tamil Nadu and used its party machinery to influence the process. He alleged that the exercise resulted in the removal of voters who were likely to support the TVK, particularly young people and women below the age of 30.
"From the day the Election Commission of India announced that SIR exercises would be conducted in Tamil Nadu, anyone who observed the DMK's actions would have easily understood the party's deceptive 'drama'. Initially, the DMK pretended to oppose the SIR at every stage. Gradually, however, it formed a secret alliance with the Election Commission and the BJP, which is in power at the Centre. Once this alliance was complete, the entire SIR exercise in Tamil Nadu was conducted under the DMK’s control," Arjuna, who is a minister, wrote on X.
The TVK leader further accused the DMK of fully implementing the SIR across Tamil Nadu, even though the BJP-led Centre had introduced the exercise. He also asked whether DMK president MK Stalin, the former Chief Minister, would deny the allegation.
Arjuna alleged that the DMK deployed around seven lakh people to oversee the SIR exercise, describing them as party functionaries or supporters who were "paid to carry out what amounted to a murder of democracy".
Continuing his attack, Arjuna, a close confidant of Vijay, said it was this alleged "murder of democracy" that led to the failure of Stalin's party in the last Assembly election.
"The DMK will not win any future election. The people of Tamil Nadu have pushed the DMK, which participated in the alleged murder of democracy, out of the democratic electoral arena, and they will continue to do so," he alleged.
The Tamil Nadu minister further said, "This is the democratic verdict delivered by the people against the DMK and its president, Mr MK Stalin, for their alleged role in the murder of democracy! At the appropriate time, we will expose, with complete evidence, the conspiratorial activities allegedly carried out by the DMK during the SIR exercise."
The TVK leader also alleged that crores of rupees from what he described as the DMK’s corrupt money were spent on SIR operatives and accused the then ruling party of using its organisational network to influence the revision process and undermine democratic principles.
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