SIR in TN: More than 5.89 million voter names struck off so far

Ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, Tamil Nadu’s election authorities have struck off more than 5.89 million names from the voter list under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

The latest data, compiled as of November 29, 2025, stems from a house-to-house verification drive aimed at identifying and striking off names on the list, due to reasons such as death, permanent relocation, untraceability, duplicate enrollments, and other discrepancies.

Not eligible or verifiable

According to the district-wise and assembly constituency-wise progress report released by the Election Commission, the total uncollectable forms, indicating that voters are no longer eligible or verifiable - stand at 5,891,085.

This accounts for approximately 9.19 per cent of the 63,200,897 Electoral Forms (EFs) distributed across Tamil Nadu's 234 assembly constituencies.

Also read: SIR hearing in SC: Arguments focus on ‘unrealistic timeline’, ‘exclusionary’ process

The overall number of processed entries, comprising both digitised and uncollectable forms, has risen to 54,030,779, which represents 84.27 per cent of the electoral forms distributed.

Categories under which removals were made:

Death: 2,383,775 voters (the largest chunk, highlighting the need for regular updates to account for natural attrition).

Permanently shifted: 2,701,050 voters (reflecting migration patterns within and outside the state).

Untraceable/Absent: 519,135 voters (those who could not be located during verification visits).

Already Enrolled (duplicates): 273,490 voters.

Others: 13,635 voters (miscellaneous reasons not specified in detail).

The SIR process, aimed at ensuring a clean and accurate voter registry, has achieved a high digitisation rate of 75.08 per cent, with 48,139,694 EFs digitised.

Key gaps

However, the exercise revealed significant gaps, with 8,038,439 entries remaining unmapped, which represents 12.54 per cent of verified forms, largely due to incomplete data or verification issues.

Higher removals in Chennai

District-level data shows that urban-heavy areas such as Chennai recorded higher removal rates, largely driven by population mobility, while rural districts like Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri achieved efficient coverage, with overall processing exceeding 90 per cent.

Also read: Tamil Nadu CEO rules out SIR extension, rejects bias allegations

Officials attributed the removals to rigorous booth-level officer (BLO) verifications, which classified 16,715,608 entries as “self” (26.07 per cent) and 23,385,646 as “progeny” (36.47 per cent).

Electoral integrity

The Election Commission claims that the clean-up will strengthen electoral integrity by curbing bogus voting. Appeals for reinstatement are open for those erroneously removed. With Tamil Nadu's total electors at 64,114,587, the revised list is expected to be finalised soon.

Critics, however, raise concerns over potential disenfranchisement, urging greater transparency in the "others" category.