E-Paper
‘Truth of SIR’: Congress leader after his name deleted from UP draft voter roll
Gurdeep Singh Sappal claimed that there was no provision in the Special Intensive Revision to retain the names of voters who have shifted their residence.
Senior Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal on Tuesday alleged that his name and those of his family members were removed from the draft electoral roll released as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Uttar Pradesh.
Sappal, a member of the Congress Working Committee, flagged an alleged flaw in the roll revision exercise, claiming there was no provision to retain the names of voters who have shifted their residence.
"Our names were included in the 2003 voter list. Our names were also included in the voter list of the previous election. The names of our parents were included in the 2003 voter list as well," he said in a post in Hindi on X.
The Congress leader said that he and his family had submitted the necessary documents to the Election Commission
Poll authorities had not yet reacted to his X post, as of 5:45 pm.
“We have passport, birth certificate, Aadhaar, bank account, property papers, 10th certificate — everything. I myself was Joint Secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat along with the Vice President of India. Additionally, I am a member of the Congress's supreme committee, CWC. Not only that, I have been part of the Congress delegation in the Election Commission multiple times on SIR and other issues. And the BLOs know all this too,” he added.
Sappal alleged that, despite all this, the names have been removed from the draft list, and the reason given was the relocation of the house from Sahibabad to Noida.
“We were told that there is no provision to retain the names of voters who have shifted in SIR! Meaning, if any voter has changed their house to a new area, their name has been removed,” the post said.
On possibly getting names back in: ‘How many can do that?’
Sappal flagged "crores of genuine voters” like him and said that while he might fill a new Form 6 and get his family's names added back, how many people will be able to do that?
“This is the truth of SIR,” Sappal concluded the post by saying.
The Election Commission has not responded to Gurdeep Singh Sappal’s claims at the time of filing of this report.
The Uttar Pradesh SIR draft roll out
The Election Commission of India (ECI) published the draft electoral roll of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, following the conclusion of the enumeration phase of the SIR exercise, which resulted in the deletion of approximately 2.89 crore voters in the state.
The electoral roll, which had 15.44 crore voters, was reduced by 2.89 crore to 12.55 crore after the revision, Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said.
The draft voter list has been shortened by 18.7 per cent, or around one in every five voters.
“A total of 12,55,56,025 electors, out of 15,44,30,092 electors as per the Electoral Roll on 27.10.2025, have submitted their Enumeration Forms till the last date of the enumeration period, i.e., 26.12.2025, reflecting an overwhelming participation in the first phase of SIR,” the statement of the ECI said.
Among the voters whose names have been dropped include those deceased, around 46.23 lakh ( 2.99%), shifted 2.17 crore (14.06%), and duplicate voters 25.46 lakh (1.65%).
“Genuine electors from the above can still be added back in the electoral roll during the Claims and Objections period (06-01-2026 to 06-02-2026) by filling up Form-6 along with Declaration Form and other relevant documents,” the EC statement added.
