Four crore voters missing from UP electoral rolls, most are BJP supporters, claims Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Sunday claimed that four crore voters were “missing” from the electoral rolls in the state amid the special intensive revision, adding that a majority of them backed the Bharatiya Janata Party, The Indian Express reported.

Speaking to party workers at an event to announce the name of BJP leader Pankaj Chaudhary as the party’s new state chief, Adityanath said: “There is a gap of four crore missing voters. They are not your opponents, but 90% of them are your [BJP’s] voters.”

The chief minister said that Chaudhary had taken charge as the “new captain” in the state’s next political journey, the Hindustan Times reported. However, new challenges lay ahead, he added.

Adityanath asked the party workers to reach out to every voter in their booths in the remaining 12 days of the revision exercise to get enumerated. He added that Uttar Pradesh’s population was about 25 crore, of which roughly 65% should be voters, including those turning 18.

“As per this calculation, the number of voters should be around 16 crore,” The Indian Express quoted the chief minister as saying. “But in the SIR counting so far, it has come to around 12 crore only.”

His remark came as the voter roll revision exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including in Uttar Pradesh. Booth-level officers began distributing enumeration forms on November 4.

On Thursday, the enumeration phase in Uttar Pradesh was given a nearly two-week extension till December 26. The Election Commission also extended the timelines for the revision in five of the other 12 states and Union Territories.

The poll panel said that the decision was taken based on requests received from the state chief electoral officers. It came hours before the updated deadline set by the Election Commission on November 30.

At Sunday’s event, Adityanath said elections are contested at the booth level and described the voter roll revision as an “opportunity”, The Indian Express reported.

“Raise objections against fake names in every booth,” the newspaper quoted the chief minister as telling the party workers. “Get missing names included.”

Adityanath told the party workers that if they “do the hard work today, then your three-fourths work of the election will be completed, clearing the way for our victory in at least three-fourths seats”.

The BJP leader also claimed that Opposition parties had “Bangladeshis” registered as voters, the newspaper reported.

Flagging these alleged instances of irregularities, Adityanath claimed that the names of Bangladeshi citizens were found on the voter list, along with anomalies in age details across generations, during his visit to one district, the Hindustan Times reported.

“There is still time to add and remove names,” he added.

The chief minister also said that the Opposition parties lacked the strength to pose a serious challenge in the Assembly elections in the state in 2027. But the BJP workers must remain alert and capable of countering their every “trick and conspiracy”, he added.

The final electoral rolls will be published on February 14 instead of the earlier date of February 7, the poll panel announced on November 30. It was not immediately clear if this date had also been pushed ahead as a result of the Election Commission’s decision on Thursday.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners also moved the Supreme Court against it.