SIR: UP CEO spars with Congress, SP over draft stage vote deletions

Lucknow: The Congress and the Samajwadi Party have accused the Election Commission of irregularities and discrepancies in the voter lists after the draft electoral roll post-SIR was published with nearly 2.89 crore deletions.

Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa rejected the charge on social media on Wednesday.

The issue was first flagged by Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal, a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee and coordinator in the office of the Congress president, who took to X on Tuesday, alleging that his name had been deleted from the electoral roll after he shifted residence.

Calling it a "public interest issue", Sappal claimed the problem was not limited to him and affected a large section of voters in Uttar Pradesh.

He alleged that while names were deleted from the old address, they were not added at the new address, resulting in voters being removed from both places.

Sappal claimed that the SIR did not provide a mechanism for shifting voter registration to a new address and that voters were now being asked to apply afresh through Form 6, which, he argued, would erase their past voting records.

He said voting history had assumed importance as voters whose names appeared in the 2003 electoral roll were treated as genuine voters during the current exercise, and questioned why the process was not linked to EPIC numbers, as was possible earlier through Form 8.

Rinwa rejected the claims as incorrect and said that since Sappal's name had not been added to the voter list at the new address, it was wrong to suggest deletion from both locations.

He said voters who shifted residence could apply for inclusion at the new address by filling Form 6, and that others in a similar situation were also expected to follow the same procedure.

The CEO stressed that only the preliminary stage of the SIR had been completed and that the outcome would be reflected in the final electoral roll.

"It does not matter whether a name appears in the draft voter list or not. What matters is whether the name is included in the final electoral roll," he said.

Countering the CEO's clarification, Sappal told a TV channel, "I am not satisfied with the response. The issue is not why our names were deleted. It is why they weren't added at the place where we shifted and provided relevant documents too." The debate intensified later in the day after the Samajwadi Party's media cell questioned the EC over the revision figures, alleging irregularities in the addition and deletion of voters' names following remarks by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The party claimed that after the chief minister stated that four crore names were being deleted, nearly one crore names were added "in haste." It asked whether the additions indicated dishonesty earlier or later in the process, and warned that the matter could be taken to court.

Responding to the SP's allegations, Rinwa rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing.

He said political parties, including the Samajwadi Party, had sought additional time during a state-level meeting held in November, following which 15 extra days were granted for the enumeration phase.

The CEO said he had publicly stated in media interviews in November that over 2.97 crore names were likely to be removed at the draft stage, and that booth-level agents of political parties were provided lists of voters whose names were being deleted during the extended period.

He said that during the additional time, 8-9 lakh names were added to the draft roll, and that when the enumeration phase concluded on December 26, the draft electoral roll published on January 6 showed a net deletion of about 2.8876 crore names compared to the October 27, 2025 roll.

"There was no dishonesty earlier, nor is there any dishonesty now," Rinwa said, adding a reference to the fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" in his post.

The exchange came a day after the draft electoral roll was published on Tuesday, and showed that around 2.89 crore voters had been delisted across UP due to reasons such as death, migration, and enrolment elsewhere.

The EC has said the final electoral roll will be published on March 6 after the claims and objections process, which remains open till February 6.