SIR Turns Into Battle Strategy for Stalin

DMK transforms voter verification into a mass mobilisation programme laden with high rhetoric

- By Kavitha Muralidharan

NO PROPHET MAY RISK A WAGER on what Tamil Nadu's electoral rolls will look like after the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR). But one thing can be predicted: the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will be swivelling the artillery guns right around, turning the contentious voter list updation into its sharpest weapon for the 2026 assembly poll. Visual proof came on an overcast December morning, as M.K. Stalin walked into a booth committee meeting in Alwarpet. Now, Division 24 of Mylapore is not a place where chief ministers typically spend their mornings. But this was different.

This was going to be a command briefing-not in a remote war room, but right at the front.

UPDATING THE ROLLS A house-tohouse verification in progress under the SIR process in Thoothukudi, Nov. 4

BOOTH AS FORTRESS

He was officially launching the second phase of the DMK's statewide 'My Booth, Victory Booth' campaign, a mobilisation effort designed to turn every polling station into fortified battlements. His intent was to demonstrate the tactical doctrine that the SIR has pretty much handed out to the DMK.