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Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik on Friday released the draft electoral rolls, showing that over 97.3 lakh voters were deleted after a Special Intensive Revision.

The deletion represents a 15.2% decrease in the total electorate of the state. When the Election Commission of India (ECI) froze the rolls on October 27, 2025, Tamil Nadu had 6.41 crore electors. The total number now stands at 5.43 crore.

Patnaik stated that the draft rolls were released in every district in the presence of recognised political parties. According to official data, the deletions were categorised under the Absent, Shifted, Deceased and Duplicate (ASDD) criteria.

In Chennai, 14,25,018 voters were removed, accounting for 35.58% of the city’s previous electorate of 40,04,694. The district now has 25,79,676 voters, comprising 12,47,690 men, 13,31,243 women and 743 transpersons.

Percentage-wise, Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar saw the lowest deletions at 24.19%, while Anna Nagar recorded the highest at 42.18%. In terms of numbers, Velachery constituency saw the highest with 1,27,521 names removed, reducing its electors from 3,17,520 to 1,89,999. Despite the deletions, the number of polling stations in Chennai has been increased from 3,718 to........

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