With the state assembly elections due early next year, chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday called upon voters of Uttar Pradesh to surpass the 93.7 % voter turnout recorded in the West Bengal assembly elections held earlier this year.
Uttar Pradesh had logged a voter turnout of 61.03% in the 2022 assembly elections much before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. The 2026 West Bengal polls were held after the SIR in that state. Uttar Pradesh’s final electoral roll published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on April 10, 2026 saw 20.4 million (2.04 crore) names dropped under the SIR process. The final electoral rolls have 133.9 million (13.39 crore) voters while the electoral rolls published on October 27, 2025 after a special summary revision had 154.4 million voters. The voter list in UP shrank by 13.24 %. After SIR, the number of voters is lower than the size of the electorate in UP in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state, and the 2017 and 2022 assembly polls.
“The voters must demonstrate their enthusiasm by breaking this record in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections,” he said. Kumar also said that instead of being intimidated by accusations, the Election Commission accepts them as a challenge and operates with complete transparency. In the era of AI and deep fakes, if any election-related confusion or rumours spread, people should first check its source, he said.
