Adding 6.5 lakh Bihar migrants as voters in TN is illegal, says PC

United News of India

3 days ago

Chennai, Aug 3 (UNI) Joining the rising chorus against the Election Commission's move to grant voting rights to migrant workers from Bihar, facing disenfranchisement in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in that poll-bound state, Congress veteran P Chidambaram today termed it as alarming and patently illegal.
The senior Congress leader also made it clear that the move, besides being gross interference in the rights of the electorate of Tamil Nadu to elect a government of their choice, it was an "insult" to the migrant workers.
'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 gross interference in the right of the electorate of Tamil Nadu to elect a government of their choice,' he wrote in a post on X.
Questioning why the migrant workers cannot return to their home state to cast their votes during elections, he pointed out that they were going back every year for performing the Chhath Puja.
'Why should the migrant workers not return to Bihar (or his/her home state) to vote in the assembly election, as they usually do? Does not the migrant worker return to Bihar at the time of Chhath Puja festival? The migrant worker has such a home in Bihar (or another state). How can he/she be enrolled as a voter in Tamil Nadu?' he asked, adding 'the SIR exercise is getting curiouser and curiouser. If the migrant worker's family has a permanent home in Bihar and lives in Bihar, how can the migrant worker be considered 'permanently migrated' to Tamil Nadu?'
The EC, he charged, was abusing the powers entrusted to it. '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,' read the post, which also tagged the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
Earlier, the DMK and its allies as well as the ultra-Tamil Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) of Seeman have opposed the EC's reported move to grant voting rights to migrant workers from the north, alleging that it is a ploy of the BJP to change the electoral demography of states where it has no foothold.
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