UP SIR draft electoral roll out, over 2.8 crore names deleted – The Tribune

Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said the draft voter list was released under the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR). In this, over 2.8 crore of the total 15.44 crore voters had not been included due to deaths, permanent migration or multiple registrations.

The window for filing claims and objections opened on Tuesday and will continue till February 6.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal told news agencies that his name as well as that of his family members had been deleted from the voter list in Uttar Pradesh.

“The names have been deleted despite the submission of all documents and despite our names being there in the 2003 list as well as in the list during the last election. The BLO says the names were deleted since we shifted our residence. Today, the EC issued a press release saying that two crore voters who shifted residence did not submit their forms and so their names were deleted. However, our forms were submitted and we have the receipt. Still, the names were deleted…the entire SIR system has been made very complicated. So, we are opposing it…The goal of the SIR was to delete the names that could be deleted…”

According to the draft list, state capital Lucknow witnessed the deletion of the maximum number of voters. When the SIR was announced, Lucknow had 39.9 lakh electors. The number has now come down to 27.9 lakh — a sharp drop of 30 per cent.

Similarly, in Lalitpur, 9.5 lakh electors were registered as of September 27, 2025. The number has been reduced to 8.6 lakh — a dip of 10 per cent.

The poll body had earlier allotted a week for the enumeration process and set December 11 as the deadline for it. However, with reports of nearly 2.97 crore names facing deletion and ongoing mapping work, the state authorities sought additional time. The commission subsequently granted a 15-day extension, pushing the date to December 26.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav had earlier alleged that the SIR process had disproportionately affected certain voter groups.