Over 74 lakh voters missing from Tamil Nadu electoral rolls, says citizens’ collective

The Independent Young Citizens Collective (IYCC) has alleged that 74.07 lakh voters have been removed from Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls and demanded an inquiry into the alleged deletions.

Announcing a rally on Anna Salai on November 26, as part of a nationwide day of action against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the collective said the reported deletion of such a large number of names has raised serious questions about the exercise and its implications for democracy.

The IYCC is part of ‘People Against SIR’, a national platform comprising mass organisations, social movements and individual activists, independent of political parties.

The collective released its statement at a press conference at the Chennai Press Club on Tuesday. Those who addressed the meeting included political economist Parakala Prabhakar; Carnatic vocalist, writer and Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient T.M. Krishna; former General Secretary of the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation Thomas Franco; and cultural-political activist and IYCC co-convenor Radhika Ganesh.

Ms. Radhika Ganesh alleged that the SIR was a BJP-RSS project without constitutional basis and claimed that it had resulted in the removal of 74.07 lakh voters, accounting for around 11.5% of the State’s electorate. She described the deletions as a democratic crisis and sought answers from the Election Commission of India, accountability from the Union government and a clear response from political parties in Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Prabhakar called for the scrapping of the SIR and the restoration of all eligible voters whose names had been deleted. He also demanded that elections conducted using electoral rolls prepared through the SIR be annulled.

He sought the repeal of the 2023 law granting immunity to Election Commissioners and called for changes to the process of appointing them, including an end to the executive’s 2:1 majority in the selection committee. He further demanded that the forthcoming elections be conducted using the 2024 electoral rolls rather than the SIR rolls.

Mr. Krishna alleged that the revision exercise had been designed to create confusion and exclude voters. He questioned the Election Commission’s approach and the absence of a stronger political response to the exercise.

Criticising the enumeration form and the requirement for voters to furnish details relating to the 2002 electoral rolls, he said the exercise placed an unreasonable burden on ordinary citizens, many of whom might not remember their polling stations or other details from more than two decades ago.

He also alleged that the exercise appeared to focus more on identifying voters for deletion than ensuring the inclusion of every eligible citizen. He questioned the reliance on the 2002 electoral rolls when many voters had participated in subsequent elections.

Mr. Krishna said the deletions had not received adequate political or public attention. Describing it as a black mark for the State, he questioned the failure of political parties to raise the issue as a matter of democratic concern.