UP Gears Up For Voter List Overhaul After Two Decades As Special Intensive Revision Begins

Last Updated:October 28, 2025, 14:29 IST

The revision, modelled on the lines of Bihar’s SIR exercise, aims to remove duplicate or ineligible voters and add new eligible citizens to the rolls

The SIR comes at a politically sensitive time before the Election Commission is expected to announce the 2027 assembly polls. (PTI)

Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday embarked on its first Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in 22 years as the Election Commission of India launched a massive state-wide verification drive to clean and update the electoral rolls ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.

Beginning October 29, the four-month-long exercise will see over 1.62 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) verify the details of 15.44 crore registered voters across 403 assembly constituencies and 80 Lok Sabha seats, making it one of the largest voter list revisions ever undertaken in the country.

The revision, modelled on the lines of Bihar’s SIR exercise, aims to remove duplicate or ineligible voters and add new eligible citizens to the rolls. With Uttar Pradesh being India’s most populous state, this verification drive will play a crucial role in ensuring that every eligible voter is correctly listed—a process seen as central to fair and transparent elections.

A State-Wide Verification Exercise

According to Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa, the ECI’s decision to conduct an SIR across select states is intended “to ensure the utmost transparency in the electoral process and verify every voter’s eligibility afresh". He added, “All preparations have been completed. Officers, including District Election Officers, Electoral Registration Officers, Assistant Electoral Officers, and over 1.62 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs), have been trained for the exercise."

The revision will be conducted booth by booth across all constituencies of Uttar Pradesh. Each BLO will visit homes within their jurisdiction thrice between November 4 and December 4, 2025, distributing forms and verifying details of every voter. The voter list has been frozen as of midnight, October 28, marking the official start of the verification process.

During this period, suspicious entries will be flagged, and those whose names appear doubtful will be asked to produce documents proving citizenship and residence. Monitoring will be done by 75 District Election Officers and 2,445 Electoral Registration Officers to ensure accuracy and accountability.

Timeline And Procedure

According to the schedule issued by the Election Commission of India, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Uttar Pradesh will be conducted in multiple phases over the next few months. The preparatory stage, which includes training sessions for officials, logistical arrangements, and printing of enumeration papers, will take place between October 28 and November 3, 2025. Following this, from November 4 to December 4, 2025, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct a door-to-door verification drive, distributing and collecting forms from voters in every household across the state. During this phase, BLOs are mandated to visit each home up to three times to ensure maximum voter coverage and participation.

Once the field verification concludes, the draft voter list will be published on December 5, 2025, marking the start of the public review process. Citizens will then have the opportunity to submit claims and objections between December 9, 2025, and January 8, 2026, allowing them to challenge any discrepancies or omissions in the list. The Election Commission will subsequently issue notices, conduct hearings, and carry out on-ground verification to resolve these cases. This process of scrutiny and correction will continue through January, and the final voter list will be published by February 7, 2026.

Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa has also directed that no polling station in the state should have more than 1,200 voters, emphasising the need for manageable and transparent polling units. Accordingly, the verification of polling booths and rationalisation of voter distribution will be undertaken alongside the SIR process to ensure compliance with these guidelines.

Why Now? The Rationale Behind SIR

The Election Commission has so far conducted eight SIRs nationwide, the last being in 2003-04. Such revisions are typically undertaken every 20-25 years to ensure that the electoral rolls reflect accurate, updated demographic data. The process involves cross-verifying current voters against older lists—in this case, the 2003 list, which has already been uploaded to the state’s election website.

Officials will match family members’ details from that list to ensure no duplication or false entries. Those whose names cannot be matched will be asked to submit relevant documents for verification. The same 11 documents that were used in Bihar’s SIR will be applicable in Uttar Pradesh as well.

If implemented effectively, officials estimate that up to 1.30 crore names could be deleted from the rolls, similar in proportion to Bihar, where 68.66 lakh names were removed and 21.53 lakh new voters were added. However, sources within the commission caution that this projection may be exaggerated, given that “migration rates in Uttar Pradesh are far lower than in Bihar".

What Documents Will Be Required?

During the initial phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), voters will not be required to submit any documents. The verification will be carried out through door-to-door visits by Booth Level Officers, who will cross-check details with the existing electoral rolls. Only after the enumeration phase, once discrepancies or doubts arise, will BLOs seek documentary proof to validate a voter’s citizenship, age, and place of residence.

For new voters or those shifting from another state, documentary evidence will be mandatory. Individuals born before July 1, 1987, must provide their own proof of birth or age to establish eligibility. Those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004 will need to submit their own documents along with those of their parents to confirm Indian citizenship. For individuals born after December 2, 2004, it must be proven that at least one parent is an Indian citizen and the other is not an illegal migrant. The same set of 11 documents accepted during Bihar’s SIR, including Aadhaar card, passport, voter ID, PAN card, and school certificates, will also apply in Uttar Pradesh to ensure uniformity in the verification process.

Political Twist

The SIR announcement has triggered sharp political reactions in Uttar Pradesh. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has warned that “if irregularities occur in the SIR, Uttar Pradesh will face Nepal-like situations". He accused the Election Commission of ignoring previous complaints of “deleted votes" and alleged manipulation during bypolls. “We submitted a list of 18,000 deleted votes to the Commission. If such tampering continues, the public will take to the streets," Yadav said.

Congress state president Ajay Rai also opposed the move, declaring, “We will resist the SIR in UP just as we did in Bihar."

Meanwhile, deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak welcomed the exercise, saying, “Only eligible citizens should remain on the rolls. Identifying outsiders or ineligible voters is a welcome step." Minister Dayashankar Singh added that “the Election Commission’s decision is independent, and all citizens must respect it".

SP MP Dimple Yadav, however, struck a moderate note, saying: “If the Election Commission wants to conduct SIR across the country, it may do so." Meanwhile, BSP leader Vishwanath Pal stated that their party would wait for Mayawati’s decision on the issue.

The SIR comes at a politically sensitive time before the Election Commission is expected to announce the 2027 assembly polls. With UP’s vast electorate, even minor adjustments in the rolls can influence electoral outcomes in dozens of constituencies.

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