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The draft voter list of Uttar Pradesh’s SIR was released on January 6, 2026, and uploaded on the Election Commission of India’s website. The revised list contained 12.55 crore voters, while 2.89 crore names were deleted, amounting to 18.70 per cent.
UP Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said deletions were due to deceased voters, voters who moved to other states, and those absent during SIR. Data showed 2.17 crore were absent or migrated, 46.23 lakh were deceased, and 25.57 lakh had multiple registrations.
Mapping could not be completed for about 8.5 per cent voters, who will receive notices and can submit documents during claims from January 6 to February 6, 2026. The final voter list will be published on March 6, 2026, after claim resolutions.
The Election Commission of India (EC) released the draft voter list of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, January 6, 2026, after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in the state was completed. The data of the draft voters is available on the Election Commission of India’s website, and one can check if their name is present in the list or not. According to the data provided by the EC, the revised list contained a total of 12.55 crore voters. A total of 2.89 crore voters were deleted from the SIR.
The number of deletions amount to 18.70% of the electoral force in UP, the highest all over India. UP Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa held a press conference on January 6, 2026 to inform the media about the revised list.
The deletion of the 2.89 crore voters was attributed to deceased voters, voters who moved to other states for work and settled there, and voters who were absent during the conduct of the SIR, among other reasons. Navdeep Rinwa also presented the numerical data, which showed that about 2.17 crore (14.06%) were either absent or moved to other states, the deceased voters accounted for 46.23 lakh (2.99%), and the voters who were registered in multiple places simultaneously accounted for 25.57 lakh deletions (1.65%)
Rinwa also stated that mapping could not be completed for about 8.5% of the electoral force, and those people would be receiving notices shortly. The aforementioned notices would describe the list of documents that the electors could submit for final inclusion, he added. The period for filing claims and resolutions for the draft roll would be from January 6, 2026 to February 6, 2026. The final resolution for the claims will be finalised by the authorities from January 26, 2026 to February 27, 2026, following which the final voter list will be published on March 6, 2026.
The electoral roll of October 2025 for Lucknow contained 39.94 lakh voters in the capital, which reduced to 27.94 lakhs after the SIR. The capital saw the highest number of deletions, of about 12 lakh voters, accounting for 30% of deletions as compared to the previous electoral list. Prayagraj witnessed a deletion of 11.56 lakh voters, Kanpur about 9 lakh voters, Agra and Ghaziabad about 8 lakh voters, while Meerut and Noida saw about 4 lakh voters deletion.
The least number of voters deleted were in Lalitpur and Hamirpur districts, each about 90,000. The politically significant seats, which contribute to a major voter base for BJP both in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, also saw significant voter deletion. Varanasi witnessed 5.73 lakh deletions, Gorakhpur saw 6.45 lakhs, and Ayodhya about 3.37 lakhs.
A report from The Indian Express, on January 8, 2026, stated that following the publication of the draft voter list, BJP’s high command in UP convened a meeting to discuss adding more voters before the final publication of the electoral roll. The meeting was headed by UP CM Yogi Adityanath, and State President of BJP UP Pankaj Chaudhary, who expressed concern over the large number of deletions, and formulating plans to add voters who shifted to other states, added the report.
In 2025, SIR drive initially happened in Bihar, preceding the Bihar Assembly elections in November 2026. After Bihar elections were successfully conducted, the EC announced SIR in 12 states and UTs (Union Territories).
According to the EC’s guidelines, the deadline for the SIR drive completion in the 12 states/UTs was supposed to be December 4, 2025. However, several states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and UP among others requested further extension, citing the highly intensive process. EC granted a one week extension to all the states, thus shifting the new deadline to December 11, 2025.
Further extensions to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Uttar Pradesh were granted, citing the state’s request for further extension keeping in mind the large population of electorate, short staffing problems, logistics problems among others.
The SIR of electoral rolls was originally scheduled to be completed in UP by December 11, 2025, in line with the EC’s nationwide Phase-II timeline. However, following requests from state authorities citing the large electorate, logistical challenges, and the need to ensure that no eligible voter was left out, the Election Commission of India granted extensions.
In Uttar Pradesh, the enumeration period was first extended and finally allowed to continue till December 26, 2025, making it one of the states given the longest additional time under SIR. The draft roll was supposed to be released on December 31, 2025 initially, but the EC postponed its publication further by two weeks. Rinwa told the media that the number of deletions of the voters was 2.97 crores by December 31, 2025, but given the additional extension of two weeks, the BLOs were able to add another 8 lakh names.
(GP)
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