Chennai, Oct 16:
Adopting a conciliatory attitude towards Opposition DMK President M.K.Stalin, VCK Founder and Lok Sabha MP Thol Thirumavalavan on Thursday attributed deletion of nearly one lakh voters under the SIR exercise, was the reason for the former CM’s loss in his stronghold of Kolathur constituency in Chennai city in the April Assembly elections.
Talking to reporters after attending a protest demonstration organised by the INDIA Bloc in Tamil Nadu demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over SIR row, Thirumavalavan, whose party was a constituent of the TVK government headed by Vijay and has been accommodated in the Cabinet, cited the poll losses of AAP Leader and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, TMC leader and former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Stalin and former Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, alleging that they were not ordinary electoral setbacks but part of a broader political targeting in the name of SIR.
Accusing the BJP government at the Centre of targeting its political opponents, he said the SIR exercise was not new. He alleged that the BJP was using the CEC as a tool to implement the Sangh Parivar’s agenda and target its political opponents.
Referring to the election in Kolathur, he claimed that one lakh votes were deleted from the constituency and that he had brought it to the attention of then Minister PK Sekarbabu after receiving information about the deletions.
Thirumavalavan, who still addresses Stalin as “Annan” (elder brother) after parting ways with DMK and allied with the TVK, also said a woman had warned him about the possibility of Stalin losing the election. “When I met Stalin, I alerted him about the alleged plot in Kolathur targetting him and urged him to shift to another constituency. However, he and Minister Sekarbabu rejected my suggestion. I am not making these remarks to criticise anyone,” he added.