LUCKNOW The electoral rolls of Uttar Pradesh have emerged as the latest political battleground ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls, following a 13.24% reduction in registered voters after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). With the Election Commission of India (ECI) set to launch its Special Summary Revision (SSR) on November 17, a fierce tussle has erupted between the ruling BJP-led NDA and the opposition Samajwadi Party-led INDIA bloc.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has alleged that the names of 1.27 crore (12.7 million) Hindu voters are missing from the post-SIR electoral list, even as the rolls recorded a 1.65% increase in Muslim voters. Breaking down the figures, the CM claimed that 66 lakh of the 1.27 crore ‘omitted voters’ are currently enrolled in the State Election Commission’s panchayat voter list — which stands at 12.58 crore as of June — but have been left out of the ECI’s Assembly rolls. He further alleged that 55 lakh Hindu beneficiaries of government welfare schemes and approximately 4.5 lakh young voters in the 18–19 age group were missing from the voter list. Countering the CM’s allegations, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav challenged Adityanath to back the opposition’s long-standing demands for electoral reforms if he genuinely believed 1.27 crore votes had been lost.
The SP chief added that his party has already mobilized its rank and file to closely monitor the upcoming SSR exercise and ensure maximum voter enrollment.
“Aadhaar cards should be linked to voting, metal cards should be issued to voters and fingerprint or iris-based biometric identification must be adopted,” Yadav said, urging a crackdown on voter list irregularities and polling fraud.
Data from the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision—which began with door-to-door enumeration from November 4 to December 26, 2025, and concluded with the final roll publication on April 10, 2026—shows that Uttar Pradesh’s total electorate shrank from 15.44 crore (as of October 27, 2025) to 13.39 crore (133,984,792 voters). After the publication of the final voter list on April 10, with the completion of the SIR process, there was no complaint from any political party, added Rinwa. After the completion of the claim and objection phase of SIR, ECI published the final voter list on April 10 that comprised 133,984,792 voters. The ECI deleted 815,000 voters in the final list including 350,000 who did not reply to ECI notices, 328,000 permanently shifted/absent voters, 79,076 duplicate voters, 55,865 deceased voters and 2,269 voters who were not Indian citizens or were found under age.
Earlier speaking to media persons, UP chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa had stated that during the SIR of electoral rolls, there was no deletion or addition of voters targeting any specific community, assembly constituency, town or village.
