UP Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam being forcibly removed during an anti-SIR protest, 7 Oct @INCUttarPradesh/X
Of 71.38 lakh voters deleted from Uttar Pradesh’s draft roll, the ECI added 84.3 lakh to the final list — a net increase of 12.92 lakh.
The ECI said on 7 March that 16.18 lakh voters had filed Form 6 for inclusion before the draft roll was published on 6 January.
Reporters’ Collective questions how voters knew they had been excluded before publication of draft roll and alleges that ECI and Uttar Pradesh CEO have not disclosed details of these 16.18 lakh applicants.
On 6 October, The Reporters’ Collective reported that over 16 lakh voters had been mysteriously added to the voters’ list in Uttar Pradesh; and that the particulars of these voters had not been disclosed by the state's chief electoral officer (CEO). 'Because UP election authorities failed to provide this data, it is no longer possible to determine who these voters are, which assembly constituencies or polling booths they were added to, or whether the state actually verified their eligibility,' the report claimed.
The same day, UP CEO Navdeep Rinwa issued a rejoinder claiming that the report was baseless. In the rejoinder posted on X, the CEO made the following points:
It is clarified that 16.18 lakh forms (Form-6 for addition of name of a person in the roll) were collected before the date of publication of draft Roll (i.e before 06.01.2026) during House-to-House visits of BLOs in the Enumeration phase (i.e from from 27-10-2025 to 06-01-2026)
Regarding the allegation of hiding or not publishing the names of such persons, it is clarified that as per Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and as per ECI's instructions, only those names (Form-6) were to be included in the list of claims i.e., Form-9 which were received after the publication of the draft Electoral Roll on 06-01-2026 and the same was displayed on the website of CEO UP in the claims and objection period during SIR.
In a subsequent follow-up on Thursday, 8 October, The Reporters’ Collective questions how voters could have known that their names had been dropped before the publication of the draft roll, leading to the filling of 16.18 lakh forms (Form 6) for inclusion of their names. How could Uttar Pradesh have added 16.18 lakh voters during the enumeration phase itself, asked the report by Ayushi Kar and Sumedha Mittal. Legitimate voters would not have been aware at this stage that they were required to apply afresh for restoration of their names, they pointed out.
'Under the law, the names and details of those applying for addition or deletion is to be made public so others can review to check if it is legitimate and how it’s been dealt with. We spoke to the UP CEO, Navdeep Rinwa to solve the mystery of the 16.18 lakh added voters. He got inflamed. He said, “We don’t offer consultancy services to resolve your doubts or queries”. He cut the call, skirting our direct questions,' the Collective reported.
The reports also point out that the acceptance rate of Form 6 in Uttar Pradesh has been a staggering 96.27 per cent as opposed to 18.5 per cent in West Bengal. UP’s acceptance rate of Form 6 is the highest in the country, the report claims, and points out that in most states, this rate has been reported to be between 60 and 70 per cent.
Before the SIR began, Uttar Pradesh had 15.44 crore registered voters. The SIR in UP began in October 2025 and on 6 January, the CEO's office published the draft list, purging 2.89 crore voters as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate.
The purge of nearly 18.7 per cent of the electorate from the draft roll triggered widespread panic even among the state’s BJP leadership. Hours after the draft roll was published, BJP state president Pankaj Chaudhary and chief minister Yogi Adityanath convened a meeting and called upon booth level BJP workers to add at least 200 voters in every booth before the state published its final roll.
The Collective’s report also questions the UP CEO’s claim that the details of 16.18 lakh voters had been withheld on instructions from the Election Commission of India. The Collective claimed to have delved into all the internal circulars issued by the ECI and says instructions clearly said the details were to be uploaded on the CEO’s website.
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