CHENNAI: With eight days left for the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls to be completed, the number of forms that remained “uncollectable” so far in Tamil Nadu stood at 84.91 lakh, indicating that these many voters’ names may potentially be removed from the draft electoral rolls to be published on December 16, 2025. This amounted to 13.24% of Tamil Nadu’s total electorate of 6.41 crore as per the latest electoral roll, based on which the enumeration forms were distributed.
As per a report generated on Wednesday morning by officials engaged in monitoring the progress of the exercise, those classified for now as “Permanently Shifted” accounted for the maximum of 44.22 lakh among the 84.91 lakh classified as “uncollectable”.
Among the remaining, 26.18 lakh have been classified as “Deceased”, 10.73 lakh as “Absent”, and 3.5 lakh marked as “Already Enrolled (Duplicate)” as of now.
However, in a release on Wednesday evening, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) emphasised that the work is still under way and the list of uncollectable forms is being shared with the Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of political parties before preparing the draft roll to ensure transparency.
EC data show percentage of ‘uncollectable’ SIR forms varies widely between districts
It stressed that the list of uncollectable forms along with the reasons such as Absent, Permanently Shifted, Dead or Duplicate will be finalised only after December 11, the last date of the enumeration phase.
The data accessed by TNIE, meanwhile, showed that the percentage of forms that remained uncollectable varied widely between districts as of Wednesday, with Ariyalur having the lowest of 4.3% (around 23,000) of its total electors of 5.31 lakh and a whopping 31.78% (12.73 lakh), nearly one out of every three electors, of the total of 40.05 lakh electors in Chennai. The capital district was followed by Chengalpattu where 20.7% (5.78 lakh) of forms remained “uncollectable”
Importantly, the report offered insights into the actual number of enumeration forms digitised and forms that have not been returned, a clarification that has been repeatedly sought by many political parties from the Election Commission of India (ECI). The commission, in its periodic updates, has been highlighting that the total number of enumeration forms distributed and the total number of forms digitised by including all the “uncollectable” categories also under “digitised”. As of Tuesday, TN’s numbers stood at 99.45% (6.38 crore) for forms distributed and 94.32% (6.05 crore) for forms “digitised”.
However, the report (reflecting data as of Wednesday morning) showed that actual percentage of enumeration forms that have been digitised stood at 82.57% (5.29 crore) while the percentage of uncollectable forms stood at 13.24%, making the total “digitised” as per ECI’s definition at 95.81%. An official confirmed that the percentage of forms, captured in the report, did not include uncollectable forms. The official said 82.57%, whose forms have been digitised, meant that their names would find a place in the draft rolls, unless the AEROs or EROs delete them during verification, which the official added was highly unlikely. Another official attributed the high percentage of “shifted” category in Chennai to rapid urbanisation and expansion of the city that could have caused many people to shift houses. The release by CEO’s officehighlighted that even if someone got left out in the draft roll, they can make use of the claims and objection period of one month till mid January to get their names included.