Uttar Pradesh voter list down 13% as SIR 2 trims 5.38 crore names

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh's final electoral roll, published on Friday, stands at 13.39 crore voters after 2.04 crore names were deleted - a 13.24% drop from the pre-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) figure of 15.44 crore.

With this, SIR Phase II concludes, recording deletion of over 5.38 crore electors across the dozen states and UTs that began the exercise on October 28, 2025 - an overall 10.56% contraction in electorate. These include poll-bound West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala.

Among phase II states, Uttar Pradesh has the highest absolute deletions (2.04 crore), followed by West Bengal with nearly 91 lakh names removed after a contentious process involving large-scale adjudication.


Also Read: UP SIR: Over 84 lakh voters added in final list, total electorate rises to 13.39 crore

In percentage terms, Andaman & Nicobar Islands leads with a 16.9% drop - largely due to population shifts - followed by Uttar Pradesh at 13%, alongside Gujarat.

Poll-bound West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have recorded deletions of around 12% and 11.5%, respectively, while Chhattisgarh stands at 11.7%. Kerala is the only poll-bound state in single digits, with a 2.7% drop.

SIR 2.0 also shows Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Goa reporting higher female elector shares and stronger gender ratios, with Uttar Pradesh at the bottom on this criterion.

Across states, most deletions are concentrated in urban areas, largely due to migration. The Absent, Shifted, Dead (ASD) categories account for the bulk of removals.

An estimated 1.46 crore electors were found deceased, over 4.6 crore had shifted residence, and more than 44 lakh were enrolled at multiple locations.

West Bengal also has around 27 lakh electors in limbo due to inadequate linkage with 2002 electoral rolls.

Uttar Pradesh's draft roll in January had shown a sharper 18.7% reduction, with 2.89 crore names deleted. Following claims and objections, 84.28 lakh names were added, moderating the final decline. The highest additions were reported in Prayagraj, Lucknow, Bareilly, Ghaziabad and Jaunpur.

At the constituency level, Sahibabad, Jaunpur, Lucknow West, Loni and Firozabad saw the most additions.

Also Read: West Bengal Election: 20 lakh voters left in limbo as Supreme Court rejects appeal deadline

The final roll now comprises 13.39 crore electors, including 7.3 crore men, 6.09 crore women and 4,206 third-gender voters. The gender ratio remains the lowest among Phase II states at 834, though improved from 824 in the pre-SIR roll.

The state also added 17 lakh first-time voters in the 18-19 age group.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer, Uttar Pradesh, 1.04 crore electors did not match antecedents with the previous intensive revision roll, while documentation checks flagged "logical discrepancies" in about 2.22 crore cases.

Uttar Pradesh took the longest to complete the process. Though all Phase II states and UTs were to publish final rolls in February, delays due to scale and manpower constraints led to multiple extensions - with Uttar Pradesh alone receiving four - before claims, objections and hearings were concluded.

The SIR exercise remains contentious. Phase II has seen multiple petitions in the Supreme Court, with West Bengal's process further complicated by additions such as micro-observers and adjudication, which continue ahead of polls.