On what was to be the last day for filing claims and objections against the draft electoral roll of Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission of India Friday announced a fourth extension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state’s electoral rolls. The final electoral roll will be published on April 10.
In a letter to the UP Chief Electoral Officer Thursday, EC said it has considered the CEO’s request and “other relevant factors” and decided to revise the schedule.
EC had announced the SIR of electoral rolls in nine states, including UP, and three Union Territories in October last year. The electoral rolls of the other states and UTs are scheduled to be published on February 14.
As per the last extension for UP, the third, the EC, in December, set the draft roll publication date as January 6, the period for filing claims and objections as January 6 to February 6, and the final roll publication date as March 6.
Now, the poll body has further extended the claims and objections period to March 6, the period for issuing notices to electors till March 27 and the final publication date to April 10.
The draft roll published in UP saw the deletion of 19 per cent of electors, taking the total down from 15.44 crore to 12.55 crore. After that, another 3.36 crore or 26 per cent of the electors have been flagged for notices. If these electors do not appear for hearings or provide the required documents to establish eligibility, they may also be removed from the final rolls.
EC, on June 24, 2025, ordered an SIR of the country’s electoral rolls, a break from the past two decades during which no intensive revisions had taken place. Instead, electoral rolls have been revised annually and before each election by adding and deleting names from the existing rolls. In the SIR, EC is preparing the rolls afresh, with the last intensive revision in each state as the base year. All those on the rolls of any state in the last intensive revision do not need to provide additional documents.
Those not on the earlier rolls must provide documents to establish eligibility, including proof of citizenship. EC’s decision to conduct the SIR in this manner has been challenged in the Supreme Court and questioned by Opposition parties as an attempt to prepare a National Register of Citizens through the backdoor.
