The Election Commission of India has informed the Madras High Court that it will begin the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu and other poll-bound states in a week.
The Commission submitted before a bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan that the SIR, similar to the one held in Bihar, will be conducted in all states which are facing elections in early 2026.
The court was hearing a petition filed by former AIADMK MLA B. Sathyanarayanan seeking directions to the poll panel to conduct a complete and transparent re-verification of the 229 booths in Chennai’s T-Nagar constituency.
ECI’s counsel, Niranjan Rajagopal, informed the court that the petitioner’s grievance would be effectively redressed during the proposed revision. The HC took note of the submission and adjourned the case for a week.
The former legislator had moved the court alleging that the names of around 13,000 AIADMK supporters were removed from the voters’ list in favour of the DMK. He claimed that while there were 2,08,349 voters in the constituency in 1998, the number of voters increased by only 36,656 in 2021.
The SIR has been conducted so far only in Bihar, which goes to the polls next month. The exercise has drawn massive criticism from opposition parties, which alleged large-scale discrepancies in the revised voters’ list.
Earlier this month, the ECI had announced its plan to conduct a nationwide SIR of the electoral rolls. Though the poll body is yet to come up with a detailed schedule, reports claimed that the first phase of the process will be implemented in more than 10 States and one Union Territory, including election-bound Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal.
On Friday, some media outlets reported that the Commission will launch the SIR in West Bengal on November 1. They said the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal has directed all District Magistrates to begin preparations immediately and ensure that any pending work is completed without delay, reported News18.
The direction came after a meeting of the CEO with the ECI earlier this week.
