E-Paper
15.5 million vs 13.4 million: Names of more women than men deleted in Uttar Pradesh draft electoral rolls
Duplication due to many women’s names being registered at two addresses (pre and post-marriage) the prime reason for large-scale deletions affecting them, says UP CEO
The names of more women (1.55 crore or 15.5 million) than men (1.34 crore or 13.4 million) have been deleted in the draft electoral rolls for Uttar Pradesh during the Special Intensive Revision(SIR) process, according to official data. The total number of deleted names stands at 28.9 million (2.89 crore) across the state.
The gender ratio has declined from 877 (2025 voter list) to 824 women voters (draft electoral rolls published on January 6, 2025) per 1000 male voters. Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa said among the 12 55 crore (125.5 million) voters retained in the draft electoral rolls, the count of women voters is 5.67 crore (56.7 million) and there are 6.89 crore (68.9 million) men voters. When asked about the deletion of a large number of women voters’ names, the CEO attributed it to duplication.
Earlier, their names were registered in the voter list of their native place (father’s address) and later at the in-law’s place (husband’s address), he said. In the 2025 voter list, 71.18 lakh (7.12 million) women voters above 25 years had mentioned their father’s address and they were under the Election Commission’s scanner, he said. The names of 42.15 lakh (4.21 million) such women voters were deleted under the SIR process while the names of 29.4 lakh (2.94 million) such women voters were retained, he said. Hindustan Times had earlier reported that the maximum names were deleted in urban areas.
Confirming this, the CEO said the 2025 voter list had 4.16 crore (41.6 million) voters in the urban areas of the state and the number dropped to 2.99 crore (29.9 million) after the enumeration phase.
The names of 1.17 crore or 11.7 million voters (28%) have been deleted in the urban areas.
The number of rural voters has come down from 11.28 crore or 112.8 million (2025 voter list) to 9.56 crore or 95.6 million (draft rolls) after the deletion of 1.27 crore or 12.7 million (15.23%) names, the CEO said. The urban hubs, including Lucknow (30%) , Ghaziabad (28.8%), Balrampur (26%), Kanpur Nagar (25.5%) and Meerut districts (24.7%) saw the highest deletions in the draft list when compared to the 2025 voter list.
The lowest deletions were seen in Lalitpur (10%), Hamirpur (10.8%), Mahoba (12.4%), Banda (13%) and Jyotiba Phule Nagar (13.2%) .
Rinwa said the Election Commission of India will send notices to 3.26 crore (32.6 million) voters out of the 12.55 crore (125.5 million) voters whose names have been kept in the draft list.
The number of those who will get notices includes 1.04 crore (10.4 million) voters whose names were not found in the 2003 voter list and 2.22 crore (22.2 million) voters whose enumeration forms have various discrepancies detected by the ECI, including wrong names, address or father’s/ mother’s names.
The ECI started sending notices on January 14 and the hearings will commence from January 21. The ECI has deputed 493 electoral registration officers and 8751 assistant electoral registration officers for the hearings.
The addition of eligible voters is ongoing in all assembly constituencies during the claims and objections phase of the SIR process.
The ECI has already received 20.73 lakh (2.07 million) Form 6s for addition of the names in the voter list. With the addition of new voters, the gender ratio is likely to improve, the CEO said. The draft rolls published on January 6 listed 125.5 million voters, down from 154.4 million voters in the list published on October 27, 2025, a shrink of 18.70%. This number is 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.
During the enumeration phase of the SIR a total of 125.5 million voters (81.30%) returned the enumeration forms while 18.70 % or 28.9 million forms remained uncollectible. Among the 28.9 million uncollectible voters, 12. 9 million (8.40%) were categorised as permanently shifted, 4.6 million (2.99%) as deceased, 2.54 million ( 1.65%) as duplicate, and 7.95 million (5.15%) as untraceable, according to data. Another 774,472 voters (0.50%) did not return enumeration forms after collecting them from booth-level officers.
