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DMK sets up NRI welfare wing as EC mulls voting rights for diaspora

The announcement comes a month after the Election Commission mooted the idea of NRIs voting through postal ballots in India’s elections.

Over a month after the Election Commission of India (ECI) mooted the idea of Non Resident Indians (NRIs) being able to vote through postal ballot for polls in India, the DMK in Tamil Nadu announced the formation of a dedicated wing for NRIs. The party released the announcement on Friday, in which it said that as per the party byelaws, the DMK is forming a new wing called the ‘NRIs Welfare Wing’ by which NRIs can join the party and DMK’s party offices can be set up abroad. The new wing will have Mannargudi MLA TRB Rajaa as its Secretary and Dharmapuri MP S Senthil Kumar and MM Abdulla (DMK’s General Body member from Pudukkottai) as Joint Secretaries.

The ECI had, in November, 2020, sent a letter to the Law Ministry to allow NRIs to vote through postal ballots in India’s elections. The ECI’s letter said that it had received representations from several NRIs on this issue, stating that travelling to India just for elections is expensive. The Indian diaspora had also reportedly informed the ECI that even otherwise, leaving the country of their residence just for voting might not be feasible due to their jobs, education and other engagements.

As per a report in Indian Express, the ECI also informed the government that it is ready to extend the technology needed to enable voters from abroad cast their votes for Assembly  elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in 2021.

After the government received several representations on this, a 12-member committee was set up to study three main options to enable NRIs to cast their votes in India — postal votes, voting at an Indian embassy abroad and online voting. The committee finally recommended e-postal ballot and proxy voting as options apart from casting their votes in person in India.

The Union Cabinet had, in 2017, passed a proposal to grant proxy voting rights to NRIs. However, the amendment regarding this lapsed while it was awaiting approval from the Rajya Sabha. The Union government is yet to revive this proposal after the new term of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) started in 2019.

Source: The News Minute