The Election Commission of India, on Friday, 24 October, informed the Madras High Court bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan that a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls will be started in Tamil Nadu in a week.
The development came in a petition filed by B Sathyanarayan, an ex-MLA from Chennai’s T Nagar constituency, alleging that irregularities in the voter roll led to his defeat in the 2021 Legislative Assembly elections.
In his petition, Sathyanarayanan, from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), alleged that he had lost by a slim margin of 137 votes because of the mass deletion of voters. Sathyanarayanan also said that there was a lack of increase in the number of voters since 1996 and that this was disproportionate to the exponential population growth in the T Nagar constituency.
“In 1996, out of 208,349 registered voters, only 113,853 votes were polled (54.6%), and in 2021, even after 30 years, the total voters increased marginally to 245,005 – an increase of a mere 36,656 voters (approx. 1.7%),” his petition read. The petitioner further submitted that such stagnant growth in the voter list, despite exponential population increase, raises “serious legal and constitutional concerns”.
The petition also stated that the door-to-door verification of voters was done in 100 of 229 booths in the constituency and that this report had laid out a clear categorisation of shifted, duplicate and deceased voters. Sathyanarayanan said that this was submitted to the Election Commission, but that the EC deleted only 30% of the names that had been identified and that the remaining discrepancies were ignored.
The MLA further submitted that two individuals who had been wrongfully removed from the roll had filed a complaint with the Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner in August 2024, and that subsequently, their names had been added to the wrong division.
The petitioner also said that a complaint regarding this issue was submitted to the Election Officer of Zone 10, Kodambakkam, and that this was leaked to the opposing political parties.
Further, it is alleged that due to metro construction, 400 houses in Ward 141 had been destroyed and that these residents were relocated and that their names remained on the voter list of Ward 141. Sathyanarayanan stated that in a similar case of relocation of 400 voters in ward 135 (old ward 132), the names were promptly removed from the list. “Such inconsistent and selective updating of electoral roll creates a reasonable suspicion of electoral malpractice and favoritism toward the ruling party,” his petition stated.
“The Petitioner submits that by a complaint dated 28.12.2024 submitted regarding the partial removal of voters across the T Nagar constituency, which appears to have targeted only ADMK supporters. Approximately 13,000 voters belonging to the current opposition party ADMK were removed from the electoral rolls, and upon submission of the Complaint, the T Nagar constituency election-in-charge (Tahsildar) conducted an on-field verification and allegedly threatened the affected residents,” the petition further said.
In another case, a supporter of the AIADMK, Mani, a resident of T Nagar, was wrongfully declared dead, and he had to file a writ petition to have his name reinstated.
“The Petitioner submits that splitting and reshuffling, it results not only in arbitrary
rearrangement of voters but also causes confusion for citizens in locating their
correct polling station, creates unnecessary hurdles for genuine voters in
exercising their franchise, opens avenues for electoral malpractice, reduces
overall voter turnout percentage and increases unnecessary expenditure for the
Election Commission”, the petition said.