UP races against deadline as CEO seeks two-week extension to clean voter rolls

Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa has asked the Election Commission for a two-week extension to complete the state’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, with the current deadline ending December 11.

Rinwa said the additional time is essential for district election officers to re-verify voters marked as deceased, permanently relocated, absent or duplicate, ensuring what he called a “systematic and clean” voter list.

The state had already received a one-week extension after reports emerged of booth level officers dying allegedly by suicide under pressure to meet earlier deadlines.

Political parties had also urged the CEO to push the deadline, flagging the strain on BLOs and the risk of errors in the revision process.

According to data shared by the CEO, 99.24% of enumeration forms have been digitised. Of these, 80.29% came with signatures from voters or family members, while 18.85% were classified as “uncollected” — largely deceased, relocated or absent voters.

Officials said the uncollected portion includes 2.91 crore voters, with 1.27 crore marked as permanently relocated, 84.73 lakh as absent, 45.95 lakh as deceased and 23.69 lakh registered elsewhere. Another 9.58 lakh received forms but did not return them.

Digitisation of counting forms is complete in 14 districts, 132 Assembly constituencies and over 1.43 lakh polling stations. Nearly 76% of forms based on the 2003 voter list have been finalised.

The CEO has instructed all districts to accelerate voter mapping and ensure that those missing from the 2025 list — as well as first-time voters turning 18 on January 1, 2026 — submit Form 6 for enrolment.

Rinwa also appealed to political parties to assist in verifying dead, relocated, absent and duplicate voters. BLOs will share updated lists with booth-level agents by December 12, which will also be made available on the CEO’s and district election officers’ websites.