"False Figures Being Floated": Poll Body on P Chidambaram's Big Voter List Claim

It is absurd to connect the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar with Tamil Nadu, the Election Commission of India today fact-checked senior Congress leader P Chidambaram after he criticised the exercise and claimed lakhs of names could be deleted from the voter list.

"While 65 lakh voters are in danger of being disenfranchised in Bihar, reports of 'adding' 6.5 lakh persons as voters in Tamil Nadu is alarming and patently illegal," Mr Chidambaram posted on X earlier today.

The poll body, terming his claims "misleading", clarified that the "SIR has not yet been rolled out in Tamil Nadu". It also accused the leader of floating "false figures" about enrollment of 6.5 lakh voters in Tamil Nadu.

"It is therefore absurd to connect the SIR exercise in Bihar with Tamil Nadu. Such peddling of false statements with respect to SIR should be avoided.

❌ The statements made are Misleading and Baseless#ECIFactCheck

✅Read in detail in the image attached 👇 https://t.co/gRVakP610s pic.twitter.com/gKU9a1gB0t

— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) August 3, 2025

P Chidambaram had questioned the Election Commission (EC) as to how it came to the conclusion that several lakh voters in Bihar have "permanently migrated", resulting in "deletion" of their names from the voters' list.

"Calling them 'permanently migrated' is an insult to the migrant workers and a gross interference in the right of the electorate of Tamil Nadu to elect a government of its choice," the former Union Minister wrote on X.

The EC said that as per Article 19(1)(e), all citizens have the right to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India. "It is for the voters to come forward and get enrolled in the constituency where they are eligible," it said.

Further explaining, the poll body said, "A person originally belonging to Tamil Nadu, but is ordinarily residing in Delhi, is entitled to be registered as an Elector in Delhi".

"Similarly, a person originally belonging to Bihar, but is ordinarily residing in Chennai, is entitled to be registered as an Elector in Chennai," it said.

P Chidambaram's post came days after the EC claimed that more than 65 lakh enumeration forms were "not included" in the draft electoral rolls in Bihar, where assembly polls are due later this year, bringing down the total number of registered voters to 7.24 crore from around 7.9 crore.

It claimed that while 22,34,501 people registered in the electoral rolls were found to be dead during the exercise, another 36.28 lakh have "permanently shifted" out of the state or were "not found" at their stated addresses, and another 7.01 lakh have been found enrolled at "more than one place".

The Congress leader's charge came even as the Election Commission said that not a single claim or objection had been filed by any political party over the publication of the draft electoral rolls in Bihar on August 1.

"From August 1 (3 PM) till August 3 (3 PM), no demand under claims and objections has been received," said the poll panel.

The publication of the draft electoral roll has been at the centre of a political firestorm with several claims and questions raised by the opposition parties. The RJD, questioning the data on deaths given by the Election Commission, has claimed the exercise has not been carried out in a transparent manner.

In the first stage of SIR, voters were provided with "enumeration forms", either by BLOs, or BLAs nominated by political parties, which they were to return after putting their signatures and appending documents acceptable as proof of identity.

Voters with complaints of wrongful deletion of names can approach the authorities concerned, seeking a remedy by September 1.