‘SIR may have caused Stalin’s defeat in Kolathur,’ says VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) president Thol Thirumavalavan alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls may have contributed to former Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin’s defeat in the Kolathur constituency in the 2026 Assembly election. 

Speaking at an INDIA bloc protest in Chennai on Thursday, October 15, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise, Thirumavalavan said he had cautioned Stalin weeks before the election about the possibility of targeted voter deletions.

Stalin lost the Kolathur seat to Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’s (TVK) VS Babu by a margin of 8,795 votes. 

Thirumavalavan said a woman had contacted him repeatedly before the election, warning that efforts were under way to defeat Stalin in Kolathur. He said he facilitated a conversation between the woman and former minister PK Sekarbabu before raising the issue directly with Stalin.

“When I met Stalin, I told him, ‘Anna, there seems to be a problem in Kolathur. Why don’t you contest from another constituency?’ But Sekarbabu (former minister) told him that the SIR was being conducted properly and there would be no problem,” Thirumavalavan said.

Thirumavalavan said Stalin had assured him that the SIR exercise was being conducted properly with the assistance of Booth Level Agents and that there was no issue of voter deletions. “I am recounting this not to accuse any individual, but to explain that the warning had reached us several weeks before the election,” Thirumavalavan said.

Thirumavalavan alleged that more than one lakh voters had been removed from the electoral rolls in Kolathur, of whom around 20,000 were classified as deceased. The remaining deletions included names categorised as permanently shifted or duplicate entries, he said.

He also said that nearly 97 lakh names had been deleted from electoral rolls across Tamil Nadu, alleging that the exercise undermined democracy.“Even when the results were announced, I said they had not lost on their own; they had been made to lose.” 

He alleged that Opposition leaders including Stalin, former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, and former Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had been targeted.

The INDIA bloc protest was held in Egmore, Chennai, with leaders demanding the removal of Gyanesh Kumar as Chief Election Commissioner over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise.

Tamil Nadu Information and School Education Minister A Rajmohan said TVK had opposed the SIR exercise even before coming to power, including during its implementation in Bihar. He said the party had raised objections to the deletion of nearly 97 lakh voters in Tamil Nadu and was pursuing the issue in the Supreme Court.

“Every person’s right to vote is their right to life. It must be protected,” Rajmohan said. He alleged that first-time voters and marginalised communities had been disproportionately affected by the deletions.

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko said that 13.43 crore people had been removed from electoral rolls across the country and demanded Gyanesh Kumar’s removal. He said protests would continue until the Chief Election Commissioner was removed.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary P Shanmugam condemned the Union government for using police and paramilitary forces to suppress protests in Delhi against the SIR exercise. He said the agitation would continue until Gyanesh Kumar was removed.

Communist Party of India state secretary M Veerapandian stressed the need to protect India's pluralism, secularism, and democracy. He said political democracy alone was insufficient without social and economic democracy and that every citizen’s vote must carry equal weight.