Nearly 2.9 crore names dropped from Uttar Pradesh draft voter list after special revision

Of the total deletions, 2.17 crore voters were found to have shifted residence, 25.47 lakh were registered at multiple locations, and the remaining were confirmed dead. The final electoral roll will be published on March 6.

The revision exercise, launched on October 27, saw repeated extensions amid concerns over large-scale deletions in India’s most populous state. At the time the SIR was announced, Uttar Pradesh had approximately 15.44 crore registered voters.

As part of the process, individual enumeration forms were printed for every voter, and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) conducted door-to-door verification to collect signed forms.

According to official data, 12,55,56,025 forms were returned, covering 81.03 percent of the electorate. However, forms from around 18.7 percent of voters were not received, resulting in their exclusion from the draft rolls.

Among districts, Lucknow recorded the highest reduction in voter numbers. The state capital had 39.9 lakh electors when the SIR began, which has now fallen to 27.9 lakh, a drop of nearly 30 per cent.

In Lalitpur, the electorate declined from 9.5 lakh to 8.6 lakh, marking a 10 per cent reduction.

The Election Commission had initially allotted one week for enumeration, with December 11 set as the deadline.

However, with nearly 2.97 crore names initially flagged for deletion and mapping work still underway, Uttar Pradesh officials sought more time.

The Commission first granted a 15-day extension until December 26, followed by further extensions due to administrative hurdles.

Officials cited uneven workloads for BLOs—some handling more than 1,200 voters—and the approval of 1,530 new polling stations on December 23, which required data realignment at the server level.

The draft voter list was eventually released on Tuesday after completion of the extended exercise.

The scale of deletions has sparked political controversy. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has alleged that the SIR process has disproportionately affected certain voter groups, raising concerns over electoral fairness.