Daijiworld Media Network - Lucknow
Lucknow, Nov 10: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has claimed that 1.27 crore Hindu voters are missing from the state's electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), while the number of Muslim voters has increased by 1.65 per cent after the exercise.
Speaking at the Aaj Tak Panchayat programme, Adityanath accused opposition parties of spreading misinformation about the SIR exercise and challenged Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav to demand its withdrawal.
The Chief Minister claimed that the increase in Muslim voter numbers following the revision was one of the reasons why the Samajwadi Party was not demanding a rollback. He also questioned how such a large number of Hindu voters had gone missing from the Election Commission of India's (ECI) electoral rolls.
Adityanath said the BJP had submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission seeking verification of the alleged discrepancies and the inclusion of eligible voters whose names were missing from the electoral rolls.
He referred to cases in which voters' names appeared in panchayat election records but were absent from the ECI's electoral rolls.
According to the Chief Minister, the list included around 66 lakh voters whose names appeared in panchayat records but were missing from the ECI rolls, 55 lakh Hindu beneficiaries of government welfare schemes and 4.5 lakh voters in the 18-19 age group.
He urged the Election Commission to examine these cases and ensure that all eligible voters were included in the electoral rolls.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has also raised concerns over the electoral process. In a post on X, he proposed linking Aadhaar with voter identification and replacing existing voter ID cards with metal cards.
He also suggested introducing fingerprint and iris-based biometric verification to establish voters' identities and prevent bogus voting.
Reacting to Adityanath's remarks, SP spokesperson Udaiveer Singh questioned why the Chief Minister was not supporting the impeachment motion against the Chief Election Commissioner if he believed that the SIR exercise lacked transparency.
Singh also demanded action against the Chief Election Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa and district-level officials. He further questioned the source of the figures cited by Adityanath.
The SIR exercise in Uttar Pradesh began on October 27, 2025, with the final electoral rolls published on April 10, 2026. The state's electorate declined from 15.44 crore before the revision to 13.39 crore after the exercise.
The Election Commission has also directed district election officials to compare Assembly electoral rolls with panchayat and urban local body voter lists following discrepancies between the records.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa has said he will address queries on November 17, after publication of the draft electoral roll under the Special Summary Revision.
However, the religion-wise figures cited by Adityanath remain his claims. The overall electoral data released by the Election Commission does not independently establish the number of missing voters on the basis of religion.