SIR in UP: Large scale shift by urban voters to village addresses creates panic in BJP camp

BJP’s top leadership has instructed state leaders to formulate a strategy to check this shift fearing that it may have an impact on next Assembly polls.

Lucknow: The opposition parties may have been apprehensive of what they allege possible deletion of voters considered to be their core supporters during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Uttar Pradesh, but reported shifting of voting addresses by a large section of urban voters, considered to be BJP’s vote bank, to their villages in the state has triggered concern within the saffron party.

Apparently alarmed by these reports, BJP’s top leadership has instructed its state leaders to formulate a strategy to check this shift fearing that it may have an impact on the party’s performance in the next Assembly polls in the state which are due in 2027.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath held a series of meetings with the party workers to discuss the matter and also asked the party ministers, MPs and MLAs to reach out to the urban voters and persuade them to not to shift their voting addresses to their villages.

According to the reports, a little more than 10 per cent voters from Lucknow city have chosen their village addresses in their SIR form. Similarly in Prayagraj, around two lakh voters have preferred the option of choosing their village addresses. The number of such voters in Ayodhya is around 30,000.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP leader and union defence minister Rajnath won the Lucknow seat, but the saffron party lost both Prayagraj and Ayodhya seats to the I.N.D.I.A. bloc alliance.

Urban voters have been among the core supporters of the BJP over the years. In the 2024 LS poll BJP had won 12 of the 17 urban seats and a year before the saffron party had won all Mayoral seats in 17 cities.

BJP sources here said that the urban voters were choosing their villages as their voting addresses mainly owing to the fear that their ownership rights on their ancestral lands might weaken if they remained voters in the urban areas.

Sources in the BJP said that the party’s electoral prospects might be impacted by such a scenario as the urban voters might not travel to their villages to exercise their franchise during the polls.

BJP sources said that the party leaders have been approaching the urban voters through booth level workers and trying to persuade them not to shift their voting addresses to their villages.