Uttar Pradesh SIR draft rolls delayed a third time, over 18% deletions likely

As was the case in other states where SIR draft rolls have been published, the deletions are likely to be on account of the electors being marked deceased, shifted/absent or enrolled at multiple places, among others. Parties, including the Opposition Samajwadi Party, have not yet flagged anything irregular in the high deletions.

UP Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa told The Indian Express that publication of the draft roll has been postponed because of the creation of 15,030 new polling booths during the rationalisation exercise. Voters’ names will be shifted to new booths, part numbers will be allocated, BLOs will be appointed and the electoral roll will be published also at these new booths on January 6, the new date of publication of draft roll.

On December 23, the Election Commission approved the proposal for rationalisation of booths on the basis of 1,200 voters per booth. Earlier, polling booths in UP totalled 1.62 lakh – rationalisation was done on the basis of 1,500 voters per booth in 2024. After the new rationalisation, 15,030 new booths have been created and the total number of polling booths in the state have increased to 1.77 lakh.

Rescheduling the dates of SIR in the state, the Election Commission announced that the draft electoral roll will be published on January 6. Claims and objections will be received from January 6 to February 6. Issuance of notices and disposal of claims and objections will be done and decisions on the enumeration forms (EFs) will be done by authorities from January 6 to February 27 and the final publication of the voter list will be on March 6.

Earlier, the draft electoral roll was scheduled to be published December 31, the claims and objections to the list were scheduled to be accepted from December 31 to January 30. The earlier date of publication of the final voter list was February 28.

This is the third extension given by the Election Commission for the Uttar Pradesh SIR schedule. The first one was on November 30, when the EC extended the enumeration phase for all 12 states/UTs by one week from December 4 to December 11. Then, on December 11, the EC extended the enumeration deadline further for six states/UT, including UP which was given the longest extension of all states (two weeks).

The first phase of SIR, in which enumeration forms were submitted by electors, concluded December 26. After the end of the deadline, sources said that nearly 2.89 crore (18.70 per cent) of a total of 15.44 crore voters in the state are marked for deletion from the electoral rolls since their enumeration forms were not collected.

An analysis of data shows that the state’s predominantly urban districts are facing a higher number of voter deletions. The top 10 districts with maximum number of deletions are Lucknow (12 lakh votes or 30% of 39.94 lakh electors), Prayagraj (11.56 lakh or 24.64% of 46.92 lakh electors), Kanpur Nagar (9 lakh or 25.5% of 35.38 lakh), Agra (8.36 lakh or 23.25% of 36 lakh), and Ghaziabad (8.18 lakh or 28.83% of 28.37 lakh), Bareilly (7.14 lakh or 20.99% of 34.05 lakh), Meerut (6.65 lakh or 24.66% of 26.99 lakh), Gorakhpur (6.45 lakh or 17.61% of 36.66 lakh), Sitapur (6.23 lakh or 19.55% of 31.90 lakh) and Jaunpur (5.89 lakh or 16.51% of 35.70 lakh).

Past election results have shown urban areas to be strongholds of the BJP. “We will focus on new voters who could be added to the electoral roll before the 2027 elections. We have an estimate that nearly 50 lakh people will attain the qualifying age to be voters before the 2027 polls,” a BJP leader said.

The BJP had swept all nine seats of Agra districts and all six seats of Ghaziabad. In the Sahibabad seat of Ghaziabad district, BJP’s Sunil Kumar Sharma was elected MLA with the highest win margin of 2.14 lakh. The lowest win margin in the state was 203 votes for the Dhampur seat in Bijnor district where BJP’s Ashok Kumar Rana won.

In Lucknow, the BJP had won seven of the nine seats while the remaining two went to the SP. The BJP had won seven while its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) had won one out of 12 Assembly seats in Prayagraj district. The SP won four seats there.

In industrial city Kanpur, the BJP had won six of 10 seats of the districts. The SP had won three and Apna Dal (Sonelal) won one.

Asked about deletions in urban areas, political parties said that deleted voters were not supporters of any particular party. This is in contrast to earlier apprehensions of Opposition parties that names of their supporters may be deleted during the SIR.

SP’s Lucknow Mahanagar president Fakir Siddiqui said that the votes being deleted in Lucknow city were not of any particular caste, religion or voters of any political party. “There were a large number of people who were living in urban areas for studies and jobs. Many had names registered at more than one place. Such people have opted to maintain their registration at one place only. Due to such reasons, deletions are high in Lucknow.”

Siddiqui said his party has asked its Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to search for the “absent/untraceable” voters and get their forms filled for registration as new voters.

In Prayagraj, SP’s Mahanagar president Syed Iftekhar Hussain said that maximum deletions in Prayagraj were in three urban Assembly seats — Allahabad West, Allahabad North and Allahabad South. “That is because people in large numbers have preferred to retain registration at their rural addresses. The party will analyse the deleted votes after publication of the draft roll.”

BJP’s Kanpur Mahanagar president Shivam Singh said nearly 1.25 lakh votes are being deleted in three urban constituencies: Maharajpur, Kidwai Nagar and Kanpur Cantonment. The reason is similar to other cities where people prefer to register at rural addresses. “There are a large number of absentee voters too. The draft roll will be analysed and party workers will reach out to genuine voters dropped from the list due to any reason. We will ensure that every eligible person becomes a voter. Any political party which works more among voters will get more votes in elections.”