‘Adding guest workers in TN voters list illegal’

Chennai: Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram on Sunday said the reported move to add 6.5 lakh guest workers from Bihar in the electoral rolls of Tamil Nadu was alarming and illegal."The SIR (special intensive revision) exercise is getting curiouser and curiouser. 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," Chidambaram said in a social media post. He alleged the Election Commission of India was abusing its powers and was trying to change the electoral character and patterns of states.Opposing the ECI's move, Chidambaram said to call the guest workers as "permanently migrated," was an insult to them. It was also a "gross interference in the right of the electorate of TN to elect a govt of its choice." The Congress veteran said, "Why should the migrant worker not return to Bihar (or his/her home state) to vote in the state assembly election, as they usually do? Does not the migrant worker return to Bihar at the time of the Chhath Puja festival?"The former Union Minister said for a person to be enrolled as a voter, they must have a fixed and permanent legal home. "The migrant worker has such a home in Bihar (or another state). How can he/she be enrolled as a voter in Tamil Nadu," Chidambaram asked.Chidambaram asked chief minister M K Stalin to "politically and legally fight against this abuse of power."