Residents of Vanagaram and Adayalampattu may have to wait longer to become Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) voters, as the proposed merger is now put on hold.

The 200 wards of the civic body are likely to head into the 2027 local body elections without expanding their limits, according to sources in the GCC and the State government.

“As the Census operations began on January 1, 2026, the Government of India has issued a directive to all States that no further changes to the boundaries after January 1, 2026, may be undertaken anywhere in India until the Census operations are over. So, till the end of next year or so, the boundaries cannot be changed,” a State-level authority said.

“According to the guidelines of the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC), once reservations are fixed without an intervening delimitation, they remain in effect for a 10-year period. So, without a fresh delimitation exercise, the existing ward reservations for the Scheduled Castes and the General Category will remain unchanged. The current reservations, which were implemented in the 2022 elections, will be same for the upcoming 2027 local body elections, and will remain valid until 2031,” another GCC official said.

“In January 2025, there was a proposal to expand the GCC limits to include nearby areas such as Vanagaram and Adayalampattu. However, the neighbouring local bodies, such as the Tambaram and Tiruvallur Corporations, staked claim over portions of these two village panchayats, causing delay. So, the State government did not pass a G.O. for the expansion,” an official said.

“Moreover, there has been no order regarding the internal delimitation of wards for the civic polls for the GCC. Altering the boundary of even a single street or polling booth legally constitutes delimitation,” he added.

“Hence, the next delimitation exercise for the city will take place only after the new Census data becomes available. The reference date [the formal time frame] for the upcoming Census is March 1, 2027, with the data expected to be collected by April 2027. The previous delimitation exercise was conducted in 2017, using the 2011 Census data,” he said.

Other districts

“While the GCC boundaries remain frozen, the TNSEC is currently executing a delimitation process for nine other districts where the local body terms have ended. This statutory 180-day process, which mandates 90 days for public hearings, is scheduled to be completed by August 17 to facilitate elections in October,” another official said.