Fall in voter numbers in UP’s high Muslim-density areas same as in rest of state

The average decline in voters in these districts after the first draft rolls is 18.75%, which is almost exactly the number for the whole of Uttar Pradesh (18.70%).

Of the districts with the highest deletions across Uttar Pradesh – Lucknow (30%), Ghaziabad (28.83%), Kanpur (25.50%), Meerut (24.65%), Prayagraj (24.64%), Gautam Buddha Nagar (23.98%), Agra (23.25%), Hapur (22.30%) and Shahjahanpur (21.76%) – only Saharanpur and Meerut have Muslim numbers much higher than the state average.

In the 13 states (including Bihar) and Union territories where the SIR has been conducted so far, Uttar Pradesh has seen the highest deletions among states. The Election Commission has said the number of deletions are mainly due to voters being marked as deceased, shifted, absent or enrolled at multiple places, and the number of deletions are expected to fall in the complaints and redressal stages.

Balrampur, which borders Nepal, is third among the 10 districts with high population of Muslims in terms of deletions. The EC said voters’ names were deleted in the first rolls here largely because their enumeration forms remained “uncollected”. Of them, 10% are in the category of absent/untraceable, and 8.43% in the permanently shifted category.

There were 15.83 lakh names in the electoral rolls of Balrampur district before the start of the SIR exercise. In the first draft after the SIR, 25.98% names have been deleted, leaving 11.71 lakh names in the voter list.

What sets Balrampur apart from the other nine districts with high Muslim numbers is that it is predominantly rural, unlike the others which are mostly urban. Across Uttar Pradesh, higher deletions have largely been a phenomenon of urban areas.

Asked about Balrampur’s numbers, an official said: “Its voter list before the SIR began was not properly updated. There were duplicate voters in large numbers, while details of shifted voters had not been updated. A large number of people in Balrampur work out of the district. Records of even dead voters were not updated earlier.”

The official pointed to the fact that the voting percentage in Balrampur has always been on the lower side to illustrate his point.

Four Assembly seats fall under Balrampur – Tulsipur, Gainsari, Balrampur and Utraula. While the first three Assembly segments are part of the Shravasti Lok Sabha constituency, Utraula is part of Gonda.

In the 2022 Assembly elections, Tulsipur saw 52.81% polling, Gainsari 51.94%, Utraula 47%, and Balrampur 48.3%. The state average in the 2022 polls was 61.03%.

A BJP leader in Balrampur said that apart from the reasons given by the official, the information they have received is that the enumeration forms of women voters remained “uncollectable” in large numbers in the district. “Women did not produce EPIC details of their parental address. Also, in various cases women forgot to submit the forms because they were preoccupied with other things.”

The BJP leader added that it was not a surprise that the deletions were uniform across minority-dominated and other areas. “The Muslim community was alert and had their documents to fill enumeration forms ready.”