Lucknow: The Election Commission on Tuesday released the draft electoral roll for Uttar Pradesh after completing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), revealing that 2.89 crore names, nearly 18 percent
of the electorate, are missing from the draft list.
Official data show that the deletions include 46.23 lakh deceased voters, around 2.17 crore voters who have shifted out of their constituencies, and 25.47 lakh duplicate entries. Uttar Pradesh earlier had about 15.44 crore registered voters. After the revision, the electorate stands at around 12.55 crore.
State Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said voters can directly check their names on the Election Commission’s website. He said the SIR process began on October 27, 2025, and the first phase of field work started on November 4, when the state had 15,30,92,000 registered voters. “Enumeration forms were printed for all voters and distributed door to door,” Rinwa said.
He explained that the exercise was initially extended by a week, and the enumeration phase was to end on December 11. However, after it was noticed that about 2.97 crore names were getting excluded, an additional 15 days were granted. According to Rinwa, over 15 crore voters or their family members signed and returned the forms. Around 81 percent of the old electoral roll was verified through signed forms, while about 18 percent did not return them.
“The reasons for non-return varied. We found 46.23 lakh cases of deceased voters, about 2.17 crore who had shifted, and 25.47 lakh duplicate entries. The total number of names that did not figure in the draft list is 2.89 crore,” he said.
The Commission has opened the claims and objections window from January 6. Voters whose names are not in the draft list can apply for inclusion by submitting Form 6 till February 6. Applications for deletion or correction can be filed through Forms 7 and 8. The final electoral roll will be published on March 6, 2026.
District-wise, Lucknow recorded the highest deletions at around 12 lakh names, while Lalitpur had the lowest at about 95,000.
The process of claims and objections is free of cost. The Election Commission has issued a toll-free helpline number 1950 for assistance. Officials said special camps will be organised, particularly in urban areas, where response during the revision exercise was relatively low.
Rinwa said people born before January 1, 2008 are eligible to apply for inclusion. He added that those who become eligible from October onwards can also submit forms to get their names added.
Reacting to the draft list, Samajwadi Party leader Ravidas Mehrotra alleged that the exercise had resulted in large-scale deletions. “After SIR, 2.89 crore names have been removed from the voter list in Uttar Pradesh and no new names have been added. The Election Commission’s responsibility is to ensure that every voter is included. Now the Commission should actively facilitate the Form 6 process,” he said.
The Election Commission recently concluded similar exercises in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, where the rolls were shortened by about 97 lakh and 74 lakh voters respectively. A special enumeration was also carried out in Assam, where the draft roll saw the deletion of 10.56 lakh names.
Election officials have urged voters to verify their details at the earliest and file claims or objections within the stipulated period, stressing that the draft roll is not final.
