2.89 crore voters dropped from UP draft rolls after SIR; 81.3% names retained, says state CEO

Election Commission of India's Uttar Pradesk unit on Tuesday published its draft electoral roll after completing a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, with 12.55 crore voters retained out of the 15.44 crore listed earlier, the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said.

About 2.89 crore voter names--representing 18.7 per cent of the electorate--were excluded from the draft list due to reasons including deaths, permanent migration and multiple registrations, Rinwa said while addressing a press conference. He added that the revision exercise involved a door-to-door enumeration drive, during which forms were filled out and signed by voters or their family members.

The SIR exercise, originally scheduled to conclude on December 11, was extended after officials noticed that a much higher number of voters--nearly 2.97 crore--were being left out during the initial phase. The state sought an additional 15 days, extending the enumeration process until December 26, Rinwa said.


Providing a detailed breakup, the CEO said that out of 15,44,30,092 voters listed in the October 27, 2025 electoral roll, enumeration forms were received for 12,55,56,025 voters, accounting for 81.3 per cent of the electorate.

Of the names excluded, 46.23 lakh voters (2.99 per cent) were found to be deceased, while 2.57 crore voters (14.06 per cent) had either permanently migrated or were unavailable during verification. Another 25.47 lakh voters (1.65 per cent) were found to be registered at more than one location.

Rinwa said December 31 had initially been fixed as the publication date for the draft roll, but delays occurred due to parallel fieldwork and Election Commission of India (ECI) instructions to rationalise polling stations.

Under revised norms, the maximum number of voters per polling station has been capped at 1,200, down from 1,500, leading to the creation of around 15,030 new polling stations across the state.

Approval for the polling station rationalisation was received on December 23, after which it took about a week for data to be migrated to servers, prompting the state to seek six additional days. As a result, the draft electoral roll was published on January 6. The updated draft now covers all 75 districts and 403 assembly constituencies, spanning 1,72,486 polling booths.

The CEO said booth-level officers worked alongside volunteers during the exercise, with support from political parties through 5,76,611 booth-level agents appointed by recognised parties. A one-month claims and objections window has opened from January 6 and will run until February 6, during which voters can apply for inclusion, seek corrections or raise objections to the draft rolls.