Uttar Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer, Navdeep Rinwa, unveiled the state's draft voter list on Tuesday, revealing a total of 12.55 crore eligible voters. This follows the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a process that led to the significant deletion of 2.89 crore names, accounting for 18.70% of the previous electorate.
Breakdown of Voter Deletions in Uttar Pradesh
The massive cleanup of the electoral database was conducted on specific grounds. The data shows that a majority of the deletions, 2.17 crore voters (14.06%), were removed because they had shifted from their registered address or were marked absent. Deceased voters constituted 46.23 lakh (2.99%) of the purged names. Furthermore, the revision identified 25.57 lakh voters (1.65%) who were found to be enrolled in more than one constituency.
This rigorous exercise has positioned Uttar Pradesh at the top in terms of the total number of uncollectable voters identified in the country. The SIR process, which involved Booth Level Officers (BLOs) collecting enumeration forms on the ground, aimed at creating a more accurate and updated roll.
Revised Schedule for Claims and Final Publication
The Election Commission had postponed the initial publication date of the draft roll from December 31 to January 6. With the draft now public, the process for claims and objections is set to begin. The window for filing claims and objections will be open from January 6 to February 6, 2026.
Subsequently, the issuance of notices and the disposal of these claims and objections will be carried out by the concerned authorities. Decisions on all submitted enumeration forms will be made in the period from January 6 to February 27. The final, conclusive voter list for Uttar Pradesh is scheduled for publication on March 6, 2026.
A Timeline of Changes in the SIR Exercise
This revision marks the third adjustment to the SIR schedule in Uttar Pradesh since the nationwide exercise commenced in 12 states and Union Territories on October 27 last year. The first extension occurred on November 30, when the EC granted a one-week extension for the enumeration phase in all 12 regions, moving the deadline from December 4 to December 11.
Subsequently, on December 11, the deadline was extended further for six states and UTs. Among them, Uttar Pradesh received the longest extension of two weeks. Following UP's high deletion rate, other states like Tamil Nadu (15%) and Gujarat (14.5%) recorded the next highest proportions of voter deletions in their respective draft rolls published in December.
