UP voter list revision: Muslim-majority districts record deletions on par with state average

The Election Commission (EC) said deletions were mainly due to voters being deceased, permanently migrated, absent during verification, or registered at multiple locations.

• UP draft rolls show equal voter deletions in minority and other districts.
• 18.70% of voters excluded statewide; similar rate in high Muslim areas
• EC cites deaths, migration, duplicates; correction window open till Feb 6

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The first draft of Uttar Pradesh’s electoral rolls, published after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, shows that voter deletions have been broadly uniform across minority-dominated districts and the rest of the state, countering allegations of targeted exclusion.

According to the draft rolls, districts with a high Muslim population, including Rampur, Moradabad, Bijnor, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Amroha, Balrampur, Bareilly, Meerut, and Bahraich, saw an average voter reduction of 18.75%, almost identical to the state-wide figure of 18.70%, reported The Indian Express.

High-deletion districts such as Lucknow (30%), Ghaziabad (28.83%), Kanpur (25.50%), Meerut (24.65%) and Prayagraj (24.64%) are mostly urban, with only Saharanpur and Meerut having Muslim populations above the state average. The Election Commission (EC) said deletions were mainly due to voters being deceased, permanently migrated, absent during verification, or registered at multiple locations.

Balrampur, a largely rural district bordering Nepal, recorded 25.98% deletions, leaving 11.71 lakh voters from 15.83 lakh listed before the SIR. Officials attributed the high reduction to uncollected enumeration forms, duplicate entries, and outdated records of deceased or migrated voters. The district also saw low historical voter turnout, with the four Assembly segments, Tulsipur, Gainsari, Balrampur and Utraula, recording 47-52.81% in the 2022 elections, below the state average of 61.03%.

Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said 2.89 crore voters, or 18.70% of the total 15.44 crore listed in October 2025, were excluded in the draft, which was published on January 6. The final electoral roll will be released on March 6.

The SIR, conducted between November 4 and December 26, 2025, involved door-to-door enumeration across 1.72 lakh polling booths, aided by over 5.76 lakh booth-level agents from political parties. The exercise was extended by 15 days after officials noted nearly 2.97 crore names at risk of exclusion.

Opposition parties, including the Congress and Samajwadi Party, criticised the process as rushed, urging the EC to correct errors. Following this, theThe Commission has opened a claims and objections window from January 6 to February 6 for voters to seek inclusion or corrections via Form-6.