Patently illegal: Chidambaram slams ECI over reported addition of 6.5 lakh migrant voters in Tamil Nadu

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday strongly criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the addition of approximately 6.5 lakh migrant workers to the electoral roll in Tamil Nadu under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, calling it "alarming" and "patently illegal."

In a post on X, Chidambaram wrote," The SIR exercise is getting curiouser and curiouser While 65 lakh voters are in danger of being disenfranchised in Bihar, reports of "adding" 6.5 lakh persons as voters in Tamil Nadu is alarming and patently illegal Calling them "permanently migrated" is an insult to the migrant workers and a gross interference in the right of the electorate of Tamil Nadu to elect a government of its choice Why should the migrant worker not return to Bihar (or his/her home state) to vote in the State Assembly election, as they usually do? Does not the migrant worker return to Bihar at the time of the Chhath puja festival? A person to be enrolled as a voter must have a fixed and permanent legal home."

He added, "The migrant worker has such a home in Bihar (or another state). How can he/she be enrolled as a voter in Tamil Nadu? If the migrant worker's family has a permanent home in Bihar and lives in Bihar, how can the migrant worker be considered as "permanently migrated" to Tamil Nadu?"


Chidambaram accused the Election Commission of overstepping its authority. "The ECI is abusing its powers and trying to change the electoral character and patterns of States This abuse of powers must be fought politically and legally @CMOTamilnadu," the post added on X.

Meanwhile the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday said that not a single claim or objection has been filed by any political party in the first 24 hours of the publication of the draft electoral rolls in Bihar.

"From August 1 (3 PM) till August 2 (3 PM), all political parties put together, have filed 'Zero' claims and objections for the addition of the names of eligible electors and deletion of the names of ineligible electors," said the poll panel in a press note.