3 cr voters deleted during SIR in UP

New Delhi: Close to three crore voters are out of the draft electoral roll for Uttar Pradesh published on Tuesday after a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. As per information provided by the office of Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer, out of 15.44 crore voters listed earlier, 12.55 crore voters (81.30%) were retained as the remaining 18.70 per cent, or about 2.89 crore voters, were stuck off due to death, permanent migration or multiple registrations. A political slugfest started shortly after the list was released with the Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders saying several names have been deliberately cut off in the exercise.

The UP CEO said the Booth Level Officers (BLO) did not find these electors or did not get back their enumeration forms because they either have shifted permanently to somewhere else from their previous place of residence, or were found missing, absent from the concerned polling area while some did not submit the form, till December 26. Prayagraj, Kanpur city, Agra, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Sitapur, Lucknow and Varanasi are the top ten districts that had the highest number of uncollected SIR forms.

“On March 6, 2026, we will issue the final voter list under SIR. Voters should check their details by entering their EPIC number on the website. If their name is not available, they should fill out Form 6,” said UP’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa while releasing the draft rolls. During the SIR exercise 2.17 crore (14.06%) had either shifted or were absent during door to door verification, 46.23 lakh (2.99%) persons were found to be dead, and 25.47 lakh (1.65%) persons were found to have been enrolled at different places. In all the Enumeration Forms were collected back from 12.55 crore (81.30%) voters.

UP state Congress President Ajay Rai said, “The removal of 2.89 crore voters is a matter of inquiry. 1.13 crore forms, which were not returned. This is a big conspiracy, and a probe should be done.” Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav posted videos of voters who claimed their names have been struck off and sought probe into the matter. He also posted videos in which claims were made that BLOs at certain places were compromised.