UP SIR Deadline ends today: Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa has asked the Election Commission for an extra two weeks to finish the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state’s voter lists, the Indian Express reported. The current deadline for completing this work is Thursday, December 11.
Rinwa said that district election officers need more time to check records again, especially to confirm the names of voters who have died, moved away, or are no longer active, so the voter list can be updated properly.
Extension requested after pressure on BLOs
Uttar Pradesh had already received a one-week extension from the earlier deadline of December 4 after reports emerged that several booth-level officers (BLOs) had died by suicide, allegedly because of pressure to finish the SIR work on time.
At a recent review meeting on the SIR process, representatives of political parties also asked the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for more time. They said BLOs were facing unreasonable pressure to complete the work quickly.
Status of digitisation and voter verification
The CEO reported that 99.24% of the enumeration forms in Uttar Pradesh have been digitised. So far, 80.29% of the forms have been returned with signatures from voters or their family members. Another 18.85% have been marked as “uncollected” for reasons such as the voter being deceased, permanently shifted, absent, or listed twice.
Officials explained that within this 18.85%, about 2.91 crore voters are marked as “uncollected,” 8.22% (1.27 crore) are listed as having moved permanently, 5.49% (84.73 lakh) as absent, 2.98% (45.95 lakh) as deceased, and 1.5% (23.69 lakh) as registered somewhere else.
They added that 0.62% (9.58 lakh) voters received the counting forms but have not returned them. At least 76% of counting forms based on the 2003 voter list have been completed so far.
The CEO has instructed all district election officers to speed up the mapping process and finish it quickly. Officers have also been told to encourage voters missing from the 2025 voter list, and those who did not receive counting forms, to fill out Form 6. Young people who turn 18 on January 1, 2026, will also be asked to use Form 6 to register.
Officials said the digitisation of counting forms has been finished in 14 districts, 132 assembly constituencies, and 143,509 polling stations.
The CEO appealed to all recognised political parties to help verify voters listed as deceased, permanently shifted, absent, or duplicates. BLOs will share the collected voter lists with booth-level agents by December 12, and these lists will also be available on the CEO’s and district election officers’ websites.