The Election Commission of India announced fresh changes to its SIR schedule for Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday — delaying publication of draft voter rolls for a third time to January 6. The ongoing Special Intensive Revision is projected to see nearly 2.89 crore deletions amid heightened scrutiny over the process. The process has triggered a major political controversy in the state — with Opposition parties levelling bias allegations that were vehemently rejected by the ruling BJP.
According to reports, the draft electoral roll is expected to contain around 12.55 crore voters. Provisional data accessed by The Indian Express indicates nearly 2.89 crore electors (or 18.70% of the electorate) could be removed from the voter list. The omissions are attributed to reasons such as death, change of residence or duplication due to enrolment in another area. Those excluded will be able to contest the deletion during the subsequent claims and objections period.
The most populous state in India has seen its SIR schedule changed three times since the exercise started on October 27. Uttar Pradesh is set to have the highest number of deletions — followed by Tamil Nadu at 15% and Gujarat at 14.5% of its voting population — as per the draft rolls. UP Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa had earlier told PTI that more than one crore voters in the draft list fall under the “unmapped” category. They will be required to submit self-attested documents prescribed by the Election Commission to retain their names in the final roll.
“Starting January 1, the EC will roll out a month-long process during which any of the nearly 2.89 crore voters, 2,88,75,000 to be precise, whose names have been deleted for various reasons and want to contest the action can reapply by filling out Form 6,” Rinwa told PTI.
Urban areas face most deletions
Data analysed by The Indian Express suggested that predominantly urban districts face a higher number of voter deletions. Lucknow leads the list with 12 lakh omissions (roughly 30% of its 39.94 lakh voters), with Prayagraj as a close second (11.56 lakh or 24.64% of 46.92 lakh electors deleted). Previous elections have seen many urban areas emerge as BJP strongholds.
“We will focus on new voters who could be added to the electoral roll before the 2027 elections. We have an estimate that nearly 50 lakh people will attain the qualifying age to be voters before the 2027 polls,” a BJP leader told Indian Express.
Top 10 districts with maximum number of deletions
- Lucknow (12 lakh votes or 30% of 39.94 lakh electors)
- Prayagraj (11.56 lakh or 24.64% of 46.92 lakh electors)
- Kanpur Nagar (9 lakh or 25.5% of 35.38 lakh)
- Agra (8.36 lakh or 23.25% of 36 lakh)
- Ghaziabad (8.18 lakh or 28.83% of 28.37 lakh)
- Bareilly (7.14 lakh or 20.99% of 34.05 lakh)
- Meerut (6.65 lakh or 24.66% of 26.99 lakh)
- Gorakhpur (6.45 lakh or 17.61% of 36.66 lakh)
- Sitapur (6.23 lakh or 19.55% of 31.90 lakh)
- Jaunpur (5.89 lakh or 16.51% of 35.70 lakh).
Why was it delayed?
Rinwa told The Indian Express that draft rolls had been delayed due to the creation of 15,030 new polling booths amid the rationalisation exercise. Voter names will be shifted to new booths, part numbers will be allocated, BLOs will be appointed, and the electoral roll published at these new booths on January 6. The nearly 52-day-long updation of electoral rolls — with ‘Shuddh Nirvachak Namavali – Majboot Loktantra’ (Clean Electoral Roll – Strong Democracy) as its theme — began across UP on November 4. It concluded after two extensions on December 26 with a pruned draft voter list.
The poll body had initially extended the enumeration phase for all 12 states and Union Territories by a week till December 11. The deadline was extended further for six states and UTs — with Uttar Pradesh getting the longest expansion of two weeks. The third announcement came a day before the draft electoral roll was slated for publication on December 31. As per the earlier timetable, claims and objections to the list were scheduled to be accepted from December 31 to January 30.