CHENNAI: Despite opposition from a majority of the political parties to undertaking the Special Summary Revision (SSR) of the electoral rolls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is going ahead with preparations for the exercise as scheduled from November 12.
When asked whether the ECI is considering the demand of many political parties to not conduct the SSR before rectifying “the errors” in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a senior ECI official told TNIE that the summary revision is an annual exercise, and that it must be conducted.
The details of the names deleted from the rolls during the SIR were given to all political parties just after the exercise was over, and they did not raise any objections ahead of the Assembly elections, the official stressed.
No political party had also cited specific instances of wrongful deletions in the electoral rolls during the meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in the last week of February 2026, the official added.
Further, the official said the ECI website has the list of about 97 lakh names deleted from the rolls – including about 26 lakh names deleted because the voters were dead and around 66 lakh names that fell under the ‘shifted and absent’ category.
After the SIR, 27 lakh eligible voters were included in the electoral rolls, which included those who fell under the category of “shifted and absent”, the official added.
The minutes documenting the sharing of the information with political parties are also available, the official said, adding, “If there are any grievances, they could have pointed them out to the ECI.” If genuine grievances had beenbrought to the authorities’ attention, election officials would have issued Form 6 to eligible applicants to facilitate their enrolment in the electoral rolls, the official also said.
On October 23, as many as nine political parties staged a walkout from an all-party meeting convened by the ECI in Chennai to discuss the execution of the SSR, demanding the resignation of the CEC.
As per schedule, the draft electoral rolls would be released on November 12. The final rolls will be published on January 4.
