Tamil Nadu SIR: The Election Commission of India (ECI) published the integrated draft electoral roll for the state of Tamil Nadu following the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). According to the draft electoral rolls, the state capital, Chennai, saw the removal of the highest number of names, which stood at 14.25 lakh. This adjustment has caused Chennai’s total electorate to plunge from its previous count of 40.04 lakh to 25.79 lakh.

Election officials have cited multiple reasons for these deletions in Chennai, including 1.56 lakh deaths, 27,323 voters who could not be traced to their address, 12.22 lakh voters who have shifted from their permanent address, and 18,772 cases of dual enrolment. 

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District-Wise Data 

Besides Chennai, Coimbatore saw 6.5 lakh voters being dropped from the revised electoral roll. Dindigul saw 2.34 lakh deletions. This has reduced the total electoral population of the district from 19.35 lakh (before the SIR) to 16.09 lakh (after the SIR). 

Karur district recorded the deletion of 79,690 voters, thereby reducing the electorate from 8.79 lakh to 8.8 lakh. In Kanchipuram, 2.74 lakh voters were deleted from the rolls. 

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How Many Voters Are There In Tamil Nadu?

According to Archana Patnaik, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Tamil Nadu, the state has a total of 5,43,76,755 electors. Out of this total pool, there are 2,7,76,332 women electors, 2,66,63,233 male voters, 7,191 third gender voters and 4,19,355 PWD voters. 

The CEO further said that, "We also had a large number of volunteers who were government employees from different departments who helped out, who were giving additional support to the BLOs. Plus, we have one of the largest numbers of BLAs. So the BLAs were also on the ground, looking and helping out."

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Why Is The SIR Done?

The SIR is done by the ECI to clean the electoral lists by removing deceased voters, duplicate entries, and names of those who have shifted their residence. This will mean greater accuracy ahead of future elections. 

The draft electoral rolls have been made available for public inspection and voters have been allowed to file claims and objections within the stipulated period before the final roll is published.