DMK backs Rahul Gandhi’s anti-CEC protest a day after attacking him over Tamil Nadu SIR

The DMK has shifted from attacking Rahul Gandhi over his alleged silence on voter deletions in Tamil Nadu to backing his protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in a sharp change of tone within 24 hours.

On Wednesday, DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan defended Gandhi’s decision to lead the Opposition protest against the Election Commission, a day after another party spokesperson, Saravanan Annadurai, questioned the Congress leader’s position on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu.

“How can elections be fair if Gyanesh Kumar, holding a high post, is anti-democratic? He should definitely be removed. It is the right of the citizens to fight against the government's wrongdoings, and that is what Rahul Gandhi did yesterday. This government doesn't want Rahul Gandhi to protest against Gyanesh Kumar,” Elangovan said.

The comments came a day after Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, led the INDIA bloc’s march from Parliament towards the Election Commission’s office in New Delhi. The Opposition demanded that the SIR exercise be scrapped and Gyanesh Kumar be removed as Chief Election Commissioner. Gandhi and several other Opposition leaders were detained during the protest.

DMK had questioned Gandhi’s silence on Tamil Nadu

The DMK’s support for Gandhi’s protest came after Saravanan Annadurai launched a strong attack on him on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Annadurai questioned Gandhi’s stance on alleged voter deletions in Tamil Nadu through the SIR exercise and accused him of adopting “inconsistent positions” on electoral roll revision.

He asked why developments in Tamil Nadu had not received the same attention from Gandhi as the wider Opposition campaign against the Election Commission. The DMK has alleged that millions of voters were removed from Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls during the SIR process.

Annadurai also questioned why Gandhi had not endorsed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s call for state governments elected after SIR to be dissolved and fresh elections held. He further asked whether Gandhi was reluctant to speak about Tamil Nadu because of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, whose Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has emerged as a Congress ally.

The DMK’s criticism was reported widely after Gandhi led the Delhi protest. The party’s questions specifically focused on what it saw as a contrast between his criticism of the SIR process elsewhere and his response to alleged deletions in Tamil Nadu.

DMK had stayed away from INDIA bloc meeting

The DMK had also skipped last week’s INDIA bloc meeting convened to formulate a strategy for a nationwide campaign against Gyanesh Kumar.

The party had, however, indicated that it supported the broader cause and stood with the Opposition bloc on the SIR issue. Tuesday’s criticism of Gandhi therefore came despite those assurances.

Gandhi and the Congress have not responded to the DMK spokesperson’s earlier comments.

The dispute comes amid a wider Opposition campaign against the Election Commission over the SIR exercise. Gandhi and other Opposition leaders have accused the poll body of electoral irregularities, while the Election Commission has defended the revision as an exercise aimed at updating electoral rolls and removing ineligible entries.

The Supreme Court has also sought responses from the Election Commission and the government on petitions concerning the voter-roll revision, adding to the scrutiny surrounding the exercise.

Congress-DMK ties fractured after Tamil Nadu polls

The latest exchange comes against the backdrop of the breakdown in the long-standing DMK-Congress relationship after the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

The supplied account says the decades-old DMK-Congress alliance collapsed after the polls, with Congress severing ties with its former ally to support actor Vijay’s TVK in government formation, triggering a bitter fallout between the two parties.

Recent reporting, however, describes the post-poll realignment somewhat differently. The DMK exited the INDIA bloc after the Tamil Nadu election, while TVK subsequently moved closer to the Congress-led Opposition camp.

That political realignment has added another layer to the DMK’s criticism of Gandhi, particularly as the party has sought answers from the Congress leadership over the alleged impact of SIR on Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls.

For now, Elangovan’s comments mark a notable change from the DMK’s earlier attack, with the party backing Gandhi’s right to protest against Gyanesh Kumar even as it continues to question his position on the SIR-related voter deletions in Tamil Nadu.