Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 29 : Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Monday alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was being used to harass voters and claimed his party would take the issue to the people.
"The Samajwadi Party is waging a struggle--we even defeated them in the Lok Sabha recently--and we will take all these issues to the public. They introduce the SIR to prevent political parties from staging protests, because ultimately, the voters will defeat them, and the SIR is used to constantly harass you," Yadav said.
He further alleged that people were facing questions regarding their citizenship due to issues arising from the revision process.
"I've heard that even highly distinguished individuals are facing questions regarding their citizenship simply because their names were missing from the SIR; just imagine how deeply we are being entangled in this bureaucratic maze," he added.
Akhilesh's remarks came as Uttar Pradesh will go to Assembly Elections in 2027, with the major battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party. Opposition alliance INDIA Bloc is expected to raise the issue of SIR in the upcoming high-stakes poll battle.
Earlier in January this year, Uttar Pradesh Chief Election Officer Navdeep Rinwa announced the publication of the draft electoral roll following the completion of the Enumeration Phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state with 2.89 crore names were deleted from the draft voter list.
Addressing the press, Navdeep Rinwa said, "The number of enumeration forms we received was approximately 12 crore, 55 lakh. This means that this many people returned the forms signed, indicating that their names should be included in the draft list. There were 46.23 lakh such deceased voters. There are 2.17 crore voters who have migrated, those who have shifted from their place of residence, who have left the house where they were residing when they registered their name in the voter list, and have permanently moved, or are missing or absent, or could not be found by the BLOs in the field. There were 25.47 lakh voters whose names were registered in more than one place on the voter list. In total, 2.89 crore names were not included in the draft voter list."
A total of 12,55,56,025 electors, out of 15,44,30,092 electors as per the Electoral Roll on 27.10.2025, have submitted their Enumeration Forms till the last date of enumeration period i.e., December 26, 2025, reflecting an overwhelming participation in the first phase of SIR.