Over 2.4 mn voters remain untraced after enumeration phase in Kerala SIR

Kerala Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U Kelkar on Saturday said that 24,08,503 voters remain untraced after the enumeration stage of the SIR of the electoral rolls in the state.

He was speaking at an all-party meeting convened to review the SIR procedures.

Kelkar presented the SIR figures after the completion of the enumeration process. According to the data, 24,08,503 enumeration forms remain uncollected out of 2.78 crore existing voters in the state, accounting for 8.65 per cent.

Of these, 6,49,885 pertain to deceased persons, 6,45,548 voters were found untraceable, and 8,16,221 voters were identified as having permanently shifted from their registered addresses.

In addition, 1,36,029 duplicate voters and 1,60,830 voters falling under other categories were identified. Kelkar said the draft electoral roll will be published on December 23.

He said issues related to the voters' list can be addressed during the grievance redressal period from December 23 to January 22, 2026.

Also, there will be provisions for enrolling new voters that will be available later, he said.

However, political parties raised concerns over the genuineness of the revised list, alleging that several genuine voters were removed during the enumeration stage.

CPI leader Rajaji Mathew Thomas, who attended the meeting, said that his name and that of his wife had been deleted from the voters' list despite submitting the enumeration forms.

Election Commission officials later clarified that the names of Thomas and his wife exist in the voters' list of the 43rd booth of the Ollur constituency.

A senior CPI(M) leader MV Jayarajan alleged that several voters, particularly senior citizens who remain at home, were marked as untraceable. He also expressed apprehension over the number of voters shown as deceased and removed from the list.

Congress leader M K Rahman said around 710 voters from a booth in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency had been removed from the list. He alleged that the enumeration process was not conducted properly due to excessive pressure on Booth Level Officers.

Except for the BJP, representatives of other political parties demanded that the SIR schedule be extended, citing that many voters living abroad would be returning to Kerala during the Christmas vacation period.