Voting rights should be vested in the State of birth: DMDK leader Premallatha Vijayakant
On the controversy surrounding the SIR exercise undertaken by the Election Commission of India that witnessed elimination of an estimated 65 lakh voters in Bihar and the allusions to the revamping of the voter population of Tamil Nadu that has a significant number of migrant workers from Bihar, the DMDK leader said, even as Tamil Nadu had been welcoming of the migrant workers and invited to eke out a living, Right to Vote must be vested in the State of birth alone.
'Migrant workers are conspicuous by their presence due to employment in Tamil Nadu, but that should not entitle them to voting right in the State,' she felt. [The Representation of People Act allows a voter who is ordinarily resident of a place to vote from there.].
According to her, allowing migrant voters to vote in the State where where they work would be bad for Tamil Nadu and the whole country.
Touching upon killings in the name of 'honour' and hate crimes, the DMDK leader supported the call for a legislation against 'honour' killings and said irrespective of any number of 'Periyars' and reformists such killings would continue without a stringent law to back it up with.
Conflating such murders with law and order, Ms. Premalatha Vijayakanth said the Law and Order in the State was questionable, with the potent mix of free flow of liquor and drugs that held captive youth, who ought to have been productive employable population.
The DMDK would be part of the alliance that would also be the winning alliance, said the DMDK general secretary. The alliance would be announced on January 9, at the party's conference, she added.
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