Tamil Nadu Voter Enrollment Deadline Jan 30; Final Roll Out Feb 17

As of Tuesday (January 27), a total of 16,02,555 applications had been received across the state.

Tamil Nadu has been undergoing a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls since November 4, as part of preparations for the forthcoming Assembly elections. The draft electoral roll, published on December 19, sparked widespread discussion after it revealed that 97.38 lakh voters had been deleted from the rolls. As a result of these deletions, the total number of voters in the state declined from 6,41,14,587 to 5,43,76,756.

The Election Commission data show that among those removed, 66,44,881 voters were deleted due to a change of residence, 26,94,672 due to death, and 3,98,278 were identified as duplicate voters.

In view of the large-scale deletions, the Election Commission provided an opportunity for affected voters to seek corrections.

Individuals whose names were removed from the draft roll were allowed to apply for re-inclusion between December 19 and January 18. The same time frame was also extended to citizens who attained 18 years of age during the revision period and were eligible to register as first-time voters.

Further, the Commission issued notices to 12,43,363 voters whose entries were found to be incomplete or missing mandatory details. These voters were asked to submit affidavits along with relevant documents by January 18 to validate their inclusion.

Applicants were required to submit Form 6 for new registrations and Form 8 for corrections, including address changes.

To ensure wider outreach, the Election Commission organised special voter enrolment camps on two consecutive weekends, covering Saturdays and Sundays across Tamil Nadu. Citing upcoming public holidays and operational constraints, several political parties urged the Commission to extend the deadline. Acting on these representations, the Election Commission extended the voter registration and correction process to January 30, which now stands as the final deadline.

Officials said all applications received by January 30 will be scrutinised and verified, after which the final electoral roll will be published on February 17. Voters have been strongly advised to ensure their names are included before the deadline to avoid disenfranchisement in the upcoming elections.

- IANS