The Tamil Nadu Election Commission Chief has said action will be taken on the polling officers at the Valasaravakkam polling booth for allowing actor Sivakarthikeyan to vote, despite his name not appearing on the voters list.
“Voting is your right and fight for your right,” tweeted actor Sivakarthikeyan after he managed to cast his vote in Valasaravakkam with “special permission”, despite initial confusion over his name not appearing in the electoral rolls. Sometime after that, it transpired that actor Srikanth and his wife Vandana too managed to vote in Saligramam; theirs was a similar case, and their names did not show up in the list. Later, it came to light that the actor’s polling booth was in Valluvar Kottam, a change in constituency from Chennai South to Chennai Central. Two other popular actors Ramesh Kanna and Robo Shankar were turned away because their names were missing.
We voted Today Morning at Saligramam Kavery School 🙂 pic.twitter.com/itxNlJEHkB
— Srikanth_official (@Act_Srikanth) April 18, 2019
Today, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Sathyabrata Sahoo ordered action against the polling officials who allowed actor Sivakarthikeyan to vote on April 18. “Sivakarthikeyan’s name was not on the voter’s list. He has voted despite that. This is a mistake on the part of the polling booth officials present there. I have ordered for action against them,” Sahoo told reporters at the Secretariat on Tuesday, said a News Minute report. It is unclear if action will be taken against officials in Saligramam too.
Silverscreen attempted contacting Sivakarthikeyan and we will update the story if and when he responds.
Srikanth, however, said that he went to Saligramam as he always has. “I even checked the app to see if my name was on the electoral rolls and it showed up. And, despite linking everything to Aadhaar, including my telephone number, I was not informed that the booth had changed. I waited for an hour-and-a-half, and after the booth agents identified my wife and me and told the officials that we voted there usually, we were told we could cast our votes, since we had our voter IDs with us, As a dutiful citizen, I only followed instructions.”
“And, contrary to claims, I did cast my vote. The photographers waiting near the open door, are proof of that. Our thumb impressions are there in the ledger, because we entered our names manually. Later, I realised that our Aadhaar cards have our current address – Lake Area in Nungambakkam – while the voter card has our previous one. Our names were in the Valluvar Kottam list. But, I don’t know who is responsible for not letting us know of the change in booth. Technically, since there was a telephone number, we should be informed if a change had been effected without our having asked for it,” he added.
Meanwhile, some prominent actors from the industry, including Vishal, Vikram and STR, did not vote as they were not in the country. The ongoing elections will decide the fate of a government that has resulted in record unemployment and among the highest recorded cases of communal and caste violence – these are issues that Tamil films and our stars have repeatedly called out on film.
In the last few years, we have watched a number of films in Tamil that have taken some decisions of the Government such as demonetisation, Aadhaar and inaction on the farmers’ issue, to the cleaners. In fact, STR even brought out a ‘Vote Song’.
While Vishal, Simbu and Vikram haven’t stated their reasons for not voting, it has been reported that Vishal and Vikram were out of country for shoot. STR is believed to have not voted because he did not want to reveal his new makeover for Maanaadu.
The spokesperson of the Sundar C film starring Vishal told Silverscreen that “Vishal reached Chennai on voting day. But, we are not sure whether he voted or not.” Reporters who were at his polling booth said that he did not show up, but this is not confirmed. Vikram and his son Dhruv Vikram are shooting for Adithya Varma in Portugal, and a source close to Vikram said they would return to Chennai only in the first week of May. STR’s father T Rajender, an actor and politician, said that STR was abroad and he wanted to make it for the elections but there were “unavoidable circumstances”.
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STR, a huge supporter of the Jalikattu protests, has made news for all kinds of reasons. One of them was the ‘Beep Song’, and soon after it was criticised for its lyrics, STR released a ‘Vote Song’ about the duty and the rights of every person to vote. He even made ‘Red Card’, directed at Vishal following their tiff after the TFPC issued him a ban.
Like Simbu, Vishal too has taken a strong political stance on select issues. He has not responded to the several allegations against him and the Producers’ Council, but his statements and tweets, and films such as Irumbuthirai, have asked people to speak up against data breach, digital India, demonetisation and GST, and been critical of the AIADMK ruling the State.
Actors STR, Vishal and Vikram’s non-participation in elections is yet another instance where they haven’t practiced what they preached. It also seems like a case of being politically aware, but only when it suits one’s needs and films.