Chennai, Dec 20 (IANS) Tamil Nadu BJP spokesperson A.N.S. Prasad has welcomed the large-scale removal of invalid and duplicate voter entries from the draft electoral rolls under the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, calling it a “historic step toward restoring electoral integrity in the state.”

According to Prasad, the SIR process resulted in the deletion of more than 97 lakh entries from the electoral rolls across Tamil Nadu. He said that the revision brought down the total electorate from 6.41 crore to 5.43 crore, marking one of the most extensive cleanses undertaken by the Election Commission in recent years.

In the statement, Prasad highlighted that the deletions include 26.32 lakh deceased voters, 66.44 lakh individuals with shifted or invalid addresses, and 3.39 lakh duplicate entries. He asserted that the scale of wrongful entries exposed in Tamil Nadu exceeds that of many other states, and said the clean-up demonstrates “how deeply irregularities had been embedded in the system.”

Prasad underscored the significance of the deletions in key constituencies, noting that over 1.03 lakh invalid entries were removed from Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s Kolathur constituency and almost 90,000 from Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Chepauk-Triplicane constituency.

He said that these figures reinforce longstanding concerns raised by the BJP about the presence of bogus voters, adding that he had personally filed a written complaint with the Election Commission on September 26, 2025, identifying over 19,000 questionable entries in Kolathur alone, which he believes contributed to the verification process.

He expressed gratitude to the Central and State Election Commissions and field-level officials for executing what he described as a “transparent and constitutionally mandated exercise.”

He emphasised that the SIR process is crucial for strengthening democracy and eliminating the scope for electoral malpractice. Prasad also criticised opposition parties, arguing that they had tried to undermine or discredit the SIR procedure.

He said the Election Commission’s actions have now “validated the necessity of the clean-up” and demonstrated that concerns about inflated voter rolls were justified.

The BJP spokesperson also said that the updated voter lists ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections pave the way for a more authentic and trustworthy electoral process in Tamil Nadu and mark an important milestone in the state’s political landscape.

–IANS

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