TN removes nearly 5.9 million names in voter list ahead of 2026 polls

Tamil Nadu’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, conducted ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, has removed over 5.89 million names from the state’s electoral roll as of 29 November 2025. The house-to-house verification aims to weed out deaths, relocations, duplicates, and other discrepancies across 234 assembly constituencies.

The Federal reported that the exercise covers 63,200,897 Electoral Forms (EFs), of which 5,891,085 were deemed uncollectable, representing 9.19 per cent of the total.

Breakdown of Removals

• Deaths: 2,383,775 voters, the largest category due to natural attrition.

• Permanently shifted: 2,701,050 voters, reflecting migration patterns.

• Untraceable/Absent: 519,135 voters not located during checks.

• Duplicates: 273,490 voters already enrolled.

• Others: 13,635 voters removed for miscellaneous reasons.

Progress and Gaps
The revision process has processed 54,030,779 entries, accounting for 84.27 per cent of the total forms. Of these, 48,139,694 have been digitised, achieving a 75.08 per cent digitisation rate. However, 8,038,439 entries (12.54 per cent of verified forms) remain unmapped due to incomplete data.

Urban centres such as Chennai reported higher removals linked to mobility, while rural districts including Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri have exceeded 90 per cent of processing. Booth Level Officer (BLO) verifications indicate that 16,715,608 entries (26.07 per cent) are classified as “self” and 23,385,646 (36.47 per cent) as “progeny”.

Implications
The Election Commission has described the SIR exercise as a step towards improving electoral integrity and curbing bogus voting. Citizens have the right to appeal in case of erroneous removals. Tamil Nadu’s total electorate currently stands at 64,114,587.

While the move has been welcomed for tightening voter records, critics caution that it carries the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters, particularly in the ambiguous “others” category, and have called for greater transparency in the revision process.