NEW DELHI: M.K. Stalin on Saturday threw his party's weight behind the protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls — but his sharpest attack was reserved not for the Election Commission. It was aimed squarely at the Congress.
At a meeting of the DMK Parliamentary Party, the DMK adopted four resolutions: demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, extending solidarity to student organisations protesting against the SIR, and seeking electoral reforms. Yet the resolutions carried a pointed political message for the Congress, accusing it of double standards on the SIR and questioning Rahul Gandhi's credentials to lead the charge against it.
The DMK claimed that it had opposed the SIR long before the national opposition campaign gathered momentum. According to the party, Stalin first raised his voice against the exercise in July 2025, after reports of large-scale voter deletions emerged from Bihar, where the SIR was first implemented. He subsequently joined the Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar, accompanied by DMK deputy general secretary Kanimozhi Karunanidhi.
That claim of primacy directly contradicts Rahul Gandhi. In a press conference held after an Indian Express report on the SIR, the Congress leader had asserted: "Whether it is due to some confusion or deliberate tampering, the Congress party was the first to raise its voice about the flaws in the SIR process and voter list deletions."
The DMK's resolutions went further, raking up the opposition alliance's troubled recent history.
The party recalled Stalin's remarks of November 15, after the 2025 Bihar Assembly election results were announced, when he flagged serious problems within the alliance: seat-sharing disputes blamed on the Congress's inflexibility, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's decision under Hemant Soren to walk out and contest independently, and candidates from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and Left parties contesting against one another in several constituencies.
Stalin had then advised the Congress to set its own house in order.
The resolutions were careful to add that none of these alliance-related problems could justify the Election Commission's alleged mistakes, and noted that public confidence in the poll body had fallen to an unprecedented low. But the political signal was unmistakable: the DMK intends to remind the Congress of its own record even as the two parties find themselves on the same side of the SIR agitation.
DMK leader A. Raja drove the point home, declaring the DMK the "primary party to oppose SIR" and questioning the Congress's "moral right" to lecture others after the party passed its own resolution on the issue. The party said its MPs had repeatedly raised concerns in Parliament over the alleged deletion of legitimate voters.
The resolutions also trained their guns on the Tamil Nadu political landscape. In its third resolution, the DMK criticised the Congress and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), accusing both of adopting inconsistent positions on the SIR. The party alleged that the Congress was opposing the exercise at the national level while avoiding similar criticism in Kerala and Tamil Nadu — arguing that concerns over electoral roll revisions should apply uniformly across states.
It questioned TVK chief Vijay's silence on the SIR and on the demand for the CEC's removal, noting that democratic forces had recently marched alongside the TVK in protests against the exercise.
The DMK further alleged that certain individuals associated with the Congress were praising the TVK for personal benefits, condemned what it described as double standards by both parties, and cautioned them against provoking a political confrontation with the DMK.
On the Election Commission itself, the resolutions were unsparing. The party alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar had spearheaded the alleged injustices despite opposition from the other two Election Commissioners, and demanded that he be removed from office and subjected to an appropriate inquiry.
The DMK recalled that Stalin had been the first in Tamil Nadu to condemn Kumar, accusing him of disregarding the Constitution, acting unilaterally and exceeding his authority — a demand Stalin reiterated during the by-election campaigns in Dharapuram and Madurantakam.
In its second resolution, the party extended full solidarity to protests by student organisations against the SIR and the CEC, declaring its position "clear, firm and consistent": the SIR must be scrapped and Kumar must go, with full support for protests organised by democratic forces towards those objectives.
The timing of the DMK's broadside is significant. The SIR agitation has become the principal rallying point for the opposition, with student groups, the CJP and now farmers' organisations announcing marches. Yet the DMK's resolutions reveal the fault lines running beneath that unity — a battle over who owns the issue, and over the Congress's standing to lead it.
For the Congress, the attack from an ally-turned-critic stings precisely because the DMK was once a pillar of the opposition bloc. The party's split with the Congress after the Tamil Nadu elections has already rearranged opposition alignments nationally, and Stalin's latest remarks suggest the DMK intends to keep its distance — cooperating on the SIR agitation while publicly auditing the Congress's record.
The DMK has also signalled that it will take the fight beyond resolutions. According to reports, the party plans to seek a meeting with the President over the SIR and electoral reforms, escalating the confrontation with the poll body to the highest constitutional office.
The SIR itself has become the most contentious electoral issue in recent memory. The exercise, first implemented in Bihar, involves a special revision of the electoral rolls that the Election Commission describes as a routine purification drive. Critics, however, allege large-scale deletions of legitimate voters, with the opposition claiming the process disproportionately affects marginalised communities.
The controversy has already produced street protests in Delhi — where the CJP's 'Lehra Do Tiranga' marches have led to detentions, including that of AISA president Neha Bora and CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke — and farmers' organisations under the Samyukt Kisan Morcha have announced a march to Delhi on October 23 over the same issue.
Whether the opposition can sustain a united front on the SIR while trading blows over credit and credibility remains the open question. For now, Stalin has made his position clear: the DMK will fight the Election Commission, back the street protests — and keep a sharp eye on the Congress.
(Reporting based on The Times of India, The Daily Jagran and Asianet Newsable.)