People gather at a centre during hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday published the draft electoral for Uttar Pradesh marking the completion of the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.
The names of as many as 2.89 crore voters have been struck off the electoral roll. The number of voters in the state now stood at 12.55 crore.
UP chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa told reporters here that the objections would be invited and disposed of by February 26.
He said that a total of 12,55,56025 SIR forms were filled and returned. In all 81.30 per cent voters filled the SIR form. 18.70 per cent of voters did not fill the form.
As many as 2.17 crore voters moved elsewhere or were missing or were absent while 46.23 lakh voters were declared dead. Besides, the names of 25.46 lakh duplicates will also be removed.
Rinwa said that the final electoral roll would be published on March six.
He said that those whose names were not in the list or who wanted to be enrolled as a new voter would have to fill Form 6. The objections and claims could be submitted online at voters.eci.in or ECINET App or with the BLO till February six.
The draft electoral roll was scheduled to be published on December 31 but the date was later extended.
The officials said that the maximum number of names (12 lakh) were deleted in Lucknow followed by Prayagraj (11 lakh) and Kanpur (nine lakh).
The electoral rolls in Agra and Ghaziabad also saw the exclusion of around eight lakh names, sources said.
The exercise had invited sharp criticism from the opposition parties which claimed that it was aimed at deleting the names of their supporters and benefitting the BJP.
BJP however rejected the allegations and instead claimed that only the names of the ‘illegal migrants’ were being deleted.