Over 97 Lakh Voters Dropped From Tamil Nadu Rolls After EC’s Intensive Revision

More than 97 lakh names have been removed from Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls following the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), triggering sharp political reactions ahead of next year’s Assembly elections. According to official data released on Friday, the total number of voters has dropped from around 6.41 crore to 5.43 crore after the exercise.

The Election Commission said the deletions include nearly 27 lakh voters marked as deceased, about 66 lakh who are believed to have migrated out of the state, and over 3.4 lakh duplicate entries. The enumeration phase of the revision, which is also underway in other poll-bound states such as West Bengal, concluded on December 16. Voters whose names have been removed can file claims and objections until January 18.

Several districts saw significant changes. Chennai recorded the highest deletions, with 14.25 lakh names removed, bringing the city’s voter count across its 22 Assembly segments down to 26 lakh. Coimbatore saw 6.5 lakh deletions, while Kancheepuram and Dindigul lost 2.74 lakh and 2.34 lakh voters respectively. Nearly 80,000 names were removed from Karur district as well.

The exercise has become a major political flashpoint. The ruling DMK and its ally Congress have strongly opposed the SIR, alleging it could disenfranchise genuine voters. Actor-politician Vijay’s TVK, despite being critical of the DMK, has also spoken against the revision. In contrast, the AIADMK has backed the process, with party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami saying the removal of duplicate voters justified the exercise.

The Election Commission has maintained that the revision is constitutional and aimed at ensuring clean electoral rolls, dismissing allegations of bias or manipulation.