Special Intensive Revision claims phase to end on January 18; more than 12.8 lakh electors seek inclusion in rolls

As the Claims and Objections period under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu is set to end on January 18, over 12.8 lakh voters have submitted Forms 6 and 6A seeking inclusion of their names.

The period started on December 19, 2025, with the publication of the draft voter registry following the counting phase. Due to SIR, around 97.37 lakh voters were deleted out of 6.41 crore, reducing the voter size in the state to 5.43 crore. More than 32,000 forms were submitted requesting that voters be removed from the rolls, according to data from the Electoral Commission.

Although six national and six State parties have a total of 2.72 lakh Booth Level Representatives (BLAs) while DMK, AIADMK and BJP have over 60,000 representatives each, only a little over 100 applications were filed seeking inclusion and exclusion in the draft list of parties.

Sources in the Dravidian branches said BLAs have the power to file demands and objections through a prescribed statement but they prefer to play a facilitating role in helping voters fill the forms as they feel it is a relatively simple process.

Sources in the DMK IT Wing, which is coordinating the exercise, said its network of around 68,000 BLAs and an equal number of Booth Digital Agents (BDA) are working at the booth level to help voters find their names in the 2002 and 2005 SIR lists and while filling forms.

supportive voters

DMK IT Wing secretary and Industries Minister TRB Rajaa, in a response sent through his team, said: “Although DMK was the only party to raise concerns about the speed of the SIR process in Tamil Nadu, it also helped people who were at risk of losing their voting rights and supported Booth Level Officers who were under immense mental stress due to workload.” He said BDAs, equipped with modern technological tools, keep track of draft lists, identify missing names and help voters fill the census forms.

Supporting the registration clearance drive, AIADMK held several rounds of meetings and appointed district and constituency-wise officers to oversee the process.

Party’s advocates wing secretary and Rajya Sabha Member IS Inbadurai said the party is working intensively at the counting stage of its BLAs and at the booth level after the release of the draft list. Officials at various levels held a series of meetings to coordinate the entire process.

“Through our party network, our BLAs tracked down voters who were moved or absent from the draft list and helped them register. We hope the final list will be clean,” he added.