MK Stalin chairs DMK MPs meeting to demand CEC removal and challenge Congress

DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin chaired a parliamentary party meeting in Chennai on Saturday, where the party adopted four resolutions targeting the Election Commission and highlighting friction within the national opposition alliance. The meeting, held at the party headquarters Anna Arivalayam, called for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise while mounting a sharp critique of Congress over its conflicting political stances.

What happened at the DMK MPs meeting

The DMK parliamentary group condemned what it described as widespread voter list deletions resulting from the SIR exercise. Former Union Minister and DMK MP A. Raja stated that the party was the first to consistently oppose the exercise both inside and outside Parliament, tracing its objections back to July 2025 following voter deletions in Bihar. The party questioned the moral authority of Congress to challenge its record, pointing out that while Congress opposes the revision nationally, it has maintained silence on similar revisions in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Stalin also recalled past coalition friction during the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, where seat-sharing disputes among Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and Left parties, alongside Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's independent campaign, undermined opposition cohesion.

DMK demands return to paper ballots

DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi alleged that around 100,000 voters were removed from the electoral rolls in the Kolathur constituency alone, compared to an expected revision of roughly 20,000 names. The party resolved that its MPs will present a formal petition to the President of India urging an immediate halt to the SIR exercise, the restoration of pre-SIR voter rolls for upcoming elections, and the scrapping of Electronic Voting Machines in favour of paper ballots.