The Election Commission has released Tamil Nadu’s draft voter list after Special Intensive Revision, removing over 97 lakh names. The move comes ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, triggering political debate and renewed focus on voter verification.
97 Lakh Names Removed After Special Intensive Revision
Chennai: The Election Commission has released the draft voter list for Tamil Nadu after completing the Special Summary Revision (SSR) process in the state. The release of this list has intensified political activity in the state, as it shows the removal of approximately one crore voters' names. According to the Election Commission, more than 97 lakh voters were removed from the list during the SSR process.
Tamil Nadu's Chief Electoral Officer, Archana Patnaik, stated that the new draft voter list includes a total of 54,376,755 voters. Of these, 2.66 crore are women and 2.77 crore are men.
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According to the Chief Electoral Officer, before the SSR, approximately 6.41 crore voters were registered in Tamil Nadu. After the completion of the revision process, 9,737,832 names were removed.
Several reasons have emerged for the removal of these names. Approximately 26.94 lakh of these voters were deceased. Additionally, 66.44 lakh voters were found to have permanently shifted to another state or location outside Tamil Nadu.
The Election Commission stated that 339,278 names were found to be duplicates, meaning these voters were registered in more than one location. According to the rules, the extra entries were removed in such cases.
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Furthermore, a three-phase door-to-door verification process was conducted to identify voters who had left the state. Despite this, 6,644,881 voters were not found at their registered addresses, after which their names were removed from the list.
With the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections approaching, political activity in the state has intensified. In this context, the DMK had launched a special campaign regarding the voter list.
The party emphasized strengthening its organization at the booth level under the “My Booth, Winning Booth” campaign. In the first phase of this campaign, the party instructed its booth committee members to play an active role in the SIR (Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls) process at the state's 68,463 polling stations.
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The objective of this initiative was to activate approximately 6.8 lakh booth committee members to monitor the electoral rolls and strengthen election preparedness.
The release of the draft voter list has increased transparency regarding the electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, but the large-scale deletions have also intensified the political debate. The reactions of political parties on this issue are likely to become more pronounced in the coming days.
