'He should definitely be removed': DMK defends Rahul Gandhi's CEC protest a day after questioning his silence
A day after a DMK spokesperson questioned Rahul Gandhi's silence on Tamil Nadu voter deletions, the party defended his protest against the Chief Election Commissioner and accused the Centre of blocking citizens from fighting for fair elections.
The DMK has publicly defended Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, a day after one of its own spokespersons questioned his silence on alleged voter deletions in Tamil Nadu during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Speaking in Chennai, DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan accused the Centre of trying to prevent Gandhi from protesting. Elections cannot be fair, he argued, if the official holding the poll body's top post acts against democracy, and he said the Chief Election Commissioner should be removed. Citizens have a right to fight the government's wrongdoing, Elangovan added, and that is what Gandhi had done.
The defence marked a sharp turn within 24 hours. On Tuesday, DMK official spokesperson and joint secretary Saravanan Annadurai had asked on social media what Gandhi's stand was on the deletions in Tamil Nadu, and why he was not endorsing the Congress president's statement that governments elected after the revision exercise should be dissolved. Annadurai's post openly doubted Gandhi's consistency on the issue.
The contrasting statements land at an awkward moment for both parties. The DMK has already withdrawn from the INDIA opposition bloc and has signalled it will pursue an independent political course in Tamil Nadu, keeping its options open for future alliances. The two parties were allies in the state before the April elections reshaped the assembly.
Gandhi was detained earlier this week during opposition protests demanding the poll chief's resignation, as demonstrations over the voter-roll revision spread from Delhi to state capitals. A Chennai mobilisation on the same demand is planned for October 10.
For Tamil Nadu's voters, the argument is not abstract. The revision exercise decides whose names remain on the rolls when the state next votes, and every party in the state now has to say, clearly and on record, whether it accepts a process its own leaders have called anti-democratic.
Sources
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