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Verify if DMK voters removed from electoral rolls, Stalin tells party workers
Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin met DMK district secretaries to address potential removal of 9.7 million voters from electoral rolls ahead of 2026 elections.
Chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin on Sunday held a meeting with district secretaries to discuss the plan following the publication of the draft electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Around 9.7 million names might be dropped from the electoral rolls of Tamil Nadu after the SIR data from the election commission showed on Friday, marking the highest percentage of potential deletions in the controversial exercise among major states. Stalin asked his partymen to check which category the removed voters belong to. The draft electoral rolls after the first phase of the SIR was published on Friday, just months ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. Of the 64.1 million electors in Tamil Nadu as on October 27, around 9.7 million or 15.2% could be deleted.
“When SIR work was started in a hurry, we warned in advance that this would lead to various irregularities. Eligible voters in Tamil Nadu could be excluded,” Stalin said, pointing out how his party workers as BLAs and worked tirelessly during the enumeration period. “AIADMK and BJP did not even come to the field. They did not even raise their voices. That is why we should be suspicious. Therefore, we should carefully see if our voters are among the 97 lakh voters who have been removed.”
The DMK has protested on the ground and even filed a case in the Supreme Court describing SIR as a conspiracy by the BJP to help their alliance with the AIADMK win in the 2026 assembly elections. “Fascist forces and enemies who cannot defeat us honestly and in a straightforward manner will try to achieve their goals through roundabout means. We must not let that happen,” Stalin said. “More than 10 percent of voters have been excluded in 168 constituencies. We need to look at this on a polling station-by-station basis.”
The list of those who have been removed from each polling station and the details of who is a Tamil Nadu voter in the list will be sent to the district secretaries by Monday. “The details should be checked thoroughly and no omissions should be made,” Stalin said. “Our next task is to check whether they are dead, have moved, or have double entries. Even if only one person has been omitted by mistake, we need to fill out Form-6 and add them to the voter list. If I am seeing this on such a micro level, then you all should understand how seriously this should be taken. It is the responsibility of every district secretary and block observer to look into it carefully and correct it.” He added that opposition parties will try to distract them but the DMK must be vigilant and reiterated that their coalition would win.
On the day the draft list was released, Leader of opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappdi Palaniswami (EPS) said that the deletions show that they were duplicate votes which is why they backed the SIR exercise. Meanwhile the state BJP unit urged its members to help genuine voters during the claims and objections period to get added to the electoral roll.
