CHENNAI: With the draft electoral roll released following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), several voters in the city have taken to social media to express anger and anxiety over their names or those of family members missing from the list despite submitting enumeration forms.
Statewide, over 97 lakh voters were removed during the revision, bringing the electorate down to 5.43 crore. Chennai recorded one of the steepest drops, with the number of voters falling from about 40.04 lakh on October 27 to 25.79 lakh on December 19, a reduction of 35.6%.
Varun Krishnan, founder of FoneArena.com, posted on X, stated that his name was deleted despite living at the same address for 25 years and voting since 2003. “Some names of non-citizens are still there. At a nearby booth, I was asked to fill out a form meant for new voters,” he wrote. “While two family members’ names remained, others were removed.”
Another voter, Stalin C, said he personally submitted the SIR form to the Booth Level Officer, but his name was removed as “untraceable”. While attempting to file Form 6 online, he faced errors due to discrepancies between initials on EPIC cards and Aadhaar records, which he said prevented eligible voters from using the online mechanism.
Others reported mixed experiences. Mahadevan Thangaraj said he and his family could find their names after completing online SIR enrolment, while another user explained that Form 8 could be used to update details if old records were retrievable.
Aparna Karthikeyan, another social media user, said her family’s names were excluded despite submitting documents. “What a pain@ How terrible that one’s right to vote can be snatched away in the name of a ‘revision’,” she posted.
Several users, including a city-based chartered accountant and an entrepreneur from Tirupur, sought explanations from the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging unexplained deletions dating back to earlier elections. An IT professional said his entire family’s names were missing despite completing the SIR process and that he was filing Form 6 to restore them.
The ECI has advised voters to check the draft rolls, verify deletion lists and submit claims or objections within the stipulated period till January 18 to seek correction or inclusion.