UP SIR draft roll: Congress leader, family among 2.89 crore deleted voters

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday released Uttar Pradesh’s draft electoral roll, putting the total electorate at 12.55 crore. But the exercise immediately ran into controversy after Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal disclosed that his own and his family’s names had been deleted under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) simply because they had shifted residence — a case the Opposition says lays bare a fundamental flaw in the revision process.

Sappal, a member of the Congress Working Committee, said his and his family’s names were removed after he moved from Sahibabad to Noida. Sharing his experience on X, he wrote that officials informed him there was no provision under SIR to retain voters who have shifted address.

“This means that if a voter changes residence, their name is simply removed. There are crores of genuine voters like me,” Sappal said. While he noted that he could submit Form-6 to re-enrol his family, he questioned how many ordinary voters would realistically be able to navigate the process within the stipulated timelines. “This is the reality of SIR,” he wrote.

Sappal’s intervention came as official data revealed the sheer scale of deletions in Uttar Pradesh: 2.89 crore names, or nearly 18.7 per cent of the electorate — the highest number recorded in any state. According to the ECI, 46.23 lakh voters (2.99 per cent) were marked deceased, while 2.17 crore (14.06 per cent) were removed on the ground that electors had shifted residence. Others were deleted after being categorised as absent, untraceable, or enrolled at multiple locations.

Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa said the deletions followed door-to-door verification by booth-level officers (BLOs). “These voters were either found to have permanently shifted from their earlier residence, were missing from the polling area concerned, or failed to submit the required forms by 26 December 2025,” Rinwa said.

He also acknowledged that the exercise remains incomplete even for those whose names continue on the draft roll. Mapping could not be completed for 8.5 per cent of voters, he said, adding that such electors would now receive notices specifying the documents required for inclusion in the final list.

The ECI will accept claims and objections from 6 January to 6 February, with disposal scheduled between 26 January and 27 February. The final electoral roll is to be published on 6 March, after the ECI deferred the draft from 31 December to 6 January.

Opposition parties have seized on Sappal’s case to argue that the SIR framework disproportionately penalises voters who migrate for work, education or housing. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav shared a video of voters complaining that their names had vanished from the draft roll.

“Before voters’ anger turns into outrage and takes the form of a movement, the Election Commission must take cognisance of valid names deleted under SIR in Mainpuri and immediately rectify the voter list,” Yadav said.

UP Congress chief Ajay Rai alleged a deeper malaise, pointing to 1.13 crore enumeration forms that were not returned. “The removal of 2.89 crore voters is a matter of inquiry. This is a big conspiracy and must be probed,” he said.

With nearly one in every five voters removed from the draft list, election analysts warn that migrant workers, tenants, the urban poor and young voters are especially vulnerable in intensive revisions that rely heavily on physical verification and strict deadlines.

In a state that sends 80 MPs to Parliament and plays a decisive role in every national election, any large-scale exclusion from the voter list carries serious political consequences. As claims and objections are processed over the coming weeks, the central question will be whether the SIR corrects genuine errors — or reinforces fears that millions of legitimate voters risk being shut out of the democratic process.