SIR in Tamil Nadu: 80 lakh voters could be deleted from draft rolls

Chennai: As many as 80 lakh voters could be deleted from the Draft Electoral Rolls in Tamil Nadu which will be released on December 19 at the end of the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision of the voters list. 

Sources told DH that of the 80 lakh, over 27 lakh are reported to be dead, while 40 lakh people have shifted their residences permanently and 4 lakh are not to be found.

Another 4 lakh voters have double entries. "When the draft electoral rolls are released on December 19, the state is likely to have 80 lakh voters less. But much of the 40 lakh people are likely to enrol as fresh voters from their current address before February when the final rolls will be released. We have to wait for the draft rolls to get the exact figure of deletions," a source said.

Currently, the state has about 6.41 crore voters. Sources said since there is about 45 days time between the release of the draft voters list to the publication of the final electoral rolls, they expect lakhs of people to file appeals or enrol as fresh voters.

They added that explanation will be provided to each voters on why their name was deleted from the draft list which will help them file appeal against the deletion.

The Chief Electoral Office (CEO) said all 6.41 crore forms have  been collected back and digitised as on December 11. BLOs will now begin the process of preparing the draft electoral rolls which will be released on December 19.