UP given another month for SIR process in fresh extension by ECI

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday extended by a month the deadline for filing claims and objections in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

This is the fourth extension given during the SIR process in India’s most-populous state, where nearly every fifth voter is facing the risk of deletion from the rolls and roughly32.6 million hearings are scheduled. Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls in early 2027.

In West Bengal, two extensions have been given till now. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have also been given one extension each. All three states began their SIR process alongside UP and will go to the polls this summer.

ECI’s announcement on Friday allowed electors time till March 6 to seek inclusion, correction or deletion of names. The extension revised the earlier February 6 cut-off and followed a formal request from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of UP Navdeep Rinwa. “The decision was taken to ensure wider public participation and improve the accuracy of the rolls in the country’s most populous state,” ECI said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Rinwa said: “On the request of the political parties a proposal was sent to the ECI to extend the dates of the claim and objection phase as well as the notice phase. The ECI has considered the request and revised the schedules of both the phases.”

In UP, the revised schedule now provides for disposal of claims and objections till March 27, checking of roll health parameters by April 3, and final publication of the electoral rolls on April 10. ECI has directed wide publicity of the revised timeline, reiterating that SIR is aimed at strengthening electoral integrity and inclusiveness rather than excluding eligible voters. Among 32.6 million voters, notices have been generated for 23.7 million voters and booth level officers (BLOs) have handed over notices to 8.63 million voters. The ECI has completed hearings for 3.03 million voters.

Uttar Pradesh is one of 12 states and Union Territories where the SIR began on November 4, covering roughly half of India’s nearly one billion-strong electorate in an exercise that has already become a political flashpoint. The initial schedule, announced on October 27, had set December 4 as the deadline for the completion of house-to-house enumeration and submission of enumeration forms. At that time, the draft roll was to be published on December 9.

However, the deadline was extended on November 30 after district election officials reported delays in field-level verification and collection of data from voters. The first extension pushed the enumeration deadline by one week to December 11 and the draft roll publication to December 16.

Officials cited the need for additional time to verify records related to deceased voters, those who had permanently shifted residences, and those found to be registered at multiple locations.

Following this, a second extension was granted on December 11, extending the enumeration and form submission process until December 26. This also resulted in the postponement of the draft electoral roll publication from the earlier proposed date to December 31. Then on December 30, the third extension was granted which said the draft rolls would be out on January 6 and the period for receiving claims and objections would be from January 6 to February 6. Friday marked the fourth such announcement.

The UP draft roll dropped the names of 28.9 million people, marking the highest percentage of deletions among major states where the controversial exercise has been conducted.The roll listed 125.5 million voters, down from 154.4 million voters in the roll published on October 27, 2025, after the special summary revision – a shrinking of 18.7%. This number was lower than the size of the electorate in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state, and the 2017 and 2022 assembly polls.

Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Balrampur, Kanpur Nagar, and Meerut districts saw the highest deletions as a share of electors as on October 27. These districts saw 30%, 28.8%, 26%, 25.5%, and 24.7% names deleted from the rolls, respectively. The lowest deletions were seen in Lalitpur, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda, and Jyotiba Phule Nagar, which saw 10%, 10.8%, 12.4%, 13%, 13.2% deletions, respectively.

The SIR in Uttar Pradesh is important because the percentage of deletions is the highest among the major states and regions where the SIR is ongoing. It is also more than double the proportion seen in West Bengal, Rajasthan, and Bihar, the other big states where SIR is underway or has already taken place.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath drew attention to the numbers during a meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party workers. “These are not your opponent’s voters, 85 to 90% of these missing voters are ours,” he had said on December 14.

State Congress chief Ajay Rai said: “Decision for a hurried SIR in the state was incorrect, which is now being proved. Congress had earlier too, demanded that this process will need four to six months and gradually extending time for SIR shows we were correct.”

UP CEO Navdeep Rinwa on Friday sought to dispel doubts raised by political parties about the deletion of a large number of voters’ names in the state through Form-7.

“The doubts hold no ground as the ECI has a set procedure for the deletion of names and it is done after proper hearing,” he said at a press conference. “Before deleting a name, the ECI will issue notice. The electoral registration officer holds a hearing on the notice. The decision to delete a name is taken after the seven-day notice period is over,” he added.