SIR 2.0 draft rolls: 13% electors deleted in nine states, three UTs

In UP, where the draft roll was published after three postponements, the total number of electors decreased by nearly 19%, from 15.44 crore to 12.55 crore, with 14.06% deletions on account of electors being declared absent or shifted, 1.65% enrolled at multiple places and 2.99% deceased.

Of the 12.55 crore voters on the draft list, 1.04 crore will receive notices as their mapping has not been completed, UP Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said. “Such people will start receiving notices from today. The notice will contain a list of documents that they can submit as proof for inclusion in the final list in March,” he said.

Electors in UP now have a month to submit claims and objections, in case any eligible electors have been left out or any ineligible ones have made it to the draft roll. The final electoral roll of UP would be published on March 6, the EC said.

The EC had announced the second round of SIR in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Goa, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Kerala and UP on October 27 last year, after conducting the exercise in Bihar from June to September 2025.

The deletions in these 12 states and UTs are on account of the electors being marked absent or shifted, enrolled at multiple places or deceased by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who fanned out across the states during the enumeration phase that began in November last year.

According to the data released by the state/ UT CEOs, the maximum deletions are on account of electors being marked absent or shifted. For example, in UP, the percentage of shifted/ absent electors was 14.06% — the highest of all nine states. Gujarat and Tamil Nadu had over 10% of electors deleted for being absent/ shifted. Overall, Andaman and Nicobar Islands had the highest shifted/ deleted electors at 16.72%.

In Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, where Assembly elections are due in the first half of 2026, the total deletions were 8.64%, 7.6%, 15.18% and 10.12% respectively.

UP SIR Draft Roll LIVE Updates

In Bihar, the deletions in the draft roll were 8.31%, with 4.59% marked as shifted/ absent.

The number of electors in the final rolls that are scheduled to be published in February-March could see further deletions as the process of filing claims and objections is on, and the EC is issuing notices to electors to furnish documents to establish their eligibility.

The EC had ordered the SIR in the country on June 24, 2025, starting with Bihar where Assembly elections were due. As opposed to the usual annual special summary revision (SSR), the SIR involved preparing the electoral rolls afresh, with all registered electors asked to submit enumeration forms within a specified time-frame, and some categories of electors asked to submit additional documents to establish their eligibility, including citizenship.

The EC’s June 24 order has been challenged in the Supreme Court by a batch of petitions questioning the poll panel’s powers and the process adopted. Opposition parties have likened the exercise to preparing a National Register of Citizens (NRC) through the back-door.

In its June 24 order, the EC had said that no intensive revision had been conducted for the past 20 years, during which there has been “significant change” to the electoral roll due to rapid urbanisation, migration and multiple entries of the same person. The EC had relied on Article 326 of the Constitution, which states that only citizens are entitled to be registered as electors. As reported by The Indian Express, the EC’s draft order had invoked the Citizenship Act as well, but its mention was dropped from the order issued on June 24.