UP draft voter list drops nearly one-fifth names

The draft electoral roll of Uttar Pradesh has seen a sharp reduction after a Special Intensive Revision, with nearly 2.89 crore names deleted from the voter list, accounting for close to one-fifth of the state’s electorate.

The revised draft was published on Tuesday by the Election Commission of India following the completion of the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR. As a result, the total number of voters in Uttar Pradesh has come down from 15.44 crore to 12.55 crore.

Navdeep Rinwa, Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, said the revision reflects a large-scale verification exercise aimed at cleaning up the rolls ahead of future elections. According to the election authority, the reduction amounts to about 18.7 per cent of the earlier list, or roughly one in every five voters.

The poll body said over 12.55 crore electors submitted their enumeration forms by the end of the exercise on December 26, indicating what it described as strong participation in the first phase of the revision process.

A breakup of the deletions shows that around 46.23 lakh names were removed due to the death of voters. Another 2.17 crore names were deleted after voters were found to have shifted their place of residence, while about 25.46 lakh entries were removed after being identified as duplicates.

Election officials stressed that the draft roll is not final. Voters whose names have been deleted but who are otherwise eligible can still seek inclusion during the claims and objections period, which runs from January 6 to February 6, 2026. Such voters will need to submit the required application form along with a declaration and supporting documents.

The revision exercise was initially scheduled to conclude on December 11, but Uttar Pradesh sought a 15-day extension after preliminary data showed that nearly 2.97 crore names were at risk of being excluded from the draft list.

Similar revision drives have recently been carried out in other states as well. The electoral roll was reduced by 97 lakh names in Tamil Nadu and by 74 lakh in Gujarat following special enumeration exercises. In Assam, a separate revision led to the deletion of over 10.56 lakh names.

The Election Commission has said the objective of these revisions is to ensure greater accuracy in voter lists by removing outdated, duplicate or ineligible entries, while giving genuine voters an opportunity to be restored before the rolls are finalised.