CHENNAI: Five of the 16 Assembly constituencies in Chennai have witnessed a drop of 40% of names each, in the draft electoral rolls of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) released on Friday.
Chennai, as a whole saw a drop of 35.58% of voters, which is more than one-third of the electors when compared to the 2025 rolls.
The Anna Nagar Assembly constituency has the most number of deletions with 42.18% fewer names in the draft roll when compared to the figures before SIR. Among them, while 639 are duplicate entries, and 8,819 are deceased voters, nearly 1.08 lakh are permanently shifted residents. The absent/untraceable voters were only one.
Speaking to TNIE, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of the Anna Nagar constituency said while the constituency is often considered a VIP area and houses government officials, including IAS and IPS officers, many of them do not reside there permanently, leading to the number of voters being dropped under the ‘shifted’ category.
The official further noted areas such as Shanthi Colony have now transformed from residential areas into commercial hubs. “We expect at least 25,000 new voters in the constituency, including those who have recently turned 18-years-old and residents who have newly shifted here,” he added.
Apart from Anna Nagar, Villivakkam (40.7%), Thousand Lights (40.7%), T Nagar (40.8%) and Velachery also have over 40% deletions under categories such as absent, shifted and dead.
Virugambakkam, Harbour and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni constituencies also have a large number of deletions- 38.8%, 38.7% and 37.2% respectively.
According to official data, Chennai had 40,04,694 voters including 19,62,245 men and 20,41,144 women as of October 27, before the SIR. This has now reduced to 25,79,676, with 14,25,018 voters dropped.
The deletions include 1,56,555 deaths, 27,328 untraceable or absent voters, 18,772 duplicate entries, and 12,22,164 permanently shifted voters. There were 199 individuals under the ‘other category’ who had failed to return the filled forms.
In addition, 2,37,619 voters have been placed under the ‘unmapped’ category, which refers to those whose names or whose parental details could not be mapped with rolls prepared after 2002 or 2005. District Election Officer and Corporation Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran said summons would be issued to individuals under the unmapped category. He, however, said that the mode of issuance of summons is yet to be finalised. These voters must submit one of 13 documents prescribed by the Election Commission of India between December 20 and January 18 to retain names.
The Harbour constituency also has the minimum number of voters at 1,10,517, while Perambur has the maximum at 2,00,181.
Kumaragurubaran said that special camps will be held on December 20 and 21 from 10 am to 6 pm for submission of Forms 6, 7, and 8.