With the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Uttar Pradesh concluding on Friday, 2.89 crore of a total of 15.44 crore voters in the state have been marked for deletion from the electoral rolls since their enumeration forms remained “uncollected”, officials said.A look at the data shows that the state’s predominantly urban districts are facing a higher number of voter deletions than their relatively rural counterparts.The draft electoral roll will be published on December 31, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said, adding the claims and objections to the list will be accepted from December 31 to January 30, 2026.The final voter list will be published on February 28.Of the 2.89 crore voters in the state who have been flagged for deletion, 1.30 crore have been marked as “permanently shifted/migrated”, 79.52 lakh as “absent/untraceable” 46.24 lakh as “deceased”, 25.47 lakh as “duplicate” (also enrolled at some other place), and 7.74 lakh from “other categories”.This makes up 18.70 per cent of the total votes registered in the last published electoral roll.Among the districts with the highest number of voter deletions from the electoral roll, Lucknow tops the list with 30% voters (12 lakh), followed by Ghaziabad at 28.83% (8.18 lakh), Kanpur Nagar at 25.50% (9 lakh), Meerut at 24.66% (6.65 lakh), Prayagraj at 24.64% (11.56 lakh), Gautam Buddha Nagar at 23.94% (4.47 lakh), and Agra at 23.25% (8.36 lakh).Other districts with high percentage of deletions are Hapur (22.30%), Shahjahanpur (21.76%), Kannauj (21.57%), Bareilly (20.99), Farrukhabad (20.81%), Badaun (20.39%), Siddharth Nagar (20.33%) and Sambhal (20.29%).Story continues below this adAfter taking the deletions into account, the names of 12.55 crore voters will appear in the draft roll to be published on December 31.Voters in the “absent/untraceable” category were those who were not found at the addresses provided in the electoral roll during the visits of booth level officers (BLOs) and their neighbours were also not able to provide any information about them.The voters in the “others” category included those who did not return their enumeration forms.Sources said 1.04 crore voters were left “unmapped” as no details were found about them and their parents in data of the previous SIR carried out in 2003. “Their forms have been digitised. They will be issued notices,” said an official, adding that a total of 12.55 crore forms have been digitised.Story continues below this adAlso, Balrampur, one of the districts on the Nepal border, was an exception to the pattern of urban centres facing more deletions as 25.98 per cent forms were marked as “uncollected”. At 10.09%, Balrampur was among three districts where the percentage of untraceable voters was above 10%. The two other districts are Ghaziabad (11.27%) and Lucknow (10.71%).The highest number of “untraceable” voters were in Lucknow (4.27 lakh), Prayagraj (3.67 lakh), Ghaziabad (3.19 lakh), Kanpur Nagar (3.10 lakh), Agra (2.96 lakh) and Bareilly (2.35 lakh) districts.The highest deletions due to “permanently shifted” voters will be in Lucknow (13.41%), Ghaziabad (12.68%), Gautam Buddha Nagar (11.80%), Meerut (11.59%) Kanpur Nagar (11%), Prayagraj (10.42%), Baghpat (10.31%) and Hapur (10.5%).The highest number of shifted voters were in Lucknow (5.35 lakh), Prayagraj (4.88 lakh), Kanpur (3.91 lakh), Ghaziabad (3.59), Agra (3.36 lakh), Gorakhpur (3.2 lakh) and Meerut (3.13 lakh).Story continues below this ad“The number of absentees is higher in urban areas because impurities in the electoral rolls regarding the voters’ addresses and their personal details are maximum there,” the official said.“During the last 15 days of revised enumeration period, more than 7 lakh uncollected forms were collected by tracing the absent voters and reaching out to those voters who were not returning their enumeration forms,” the official added.The political parties have started analysing the possible social equations that will emerge in the Assembly constituencies after the deletion of such a large number of votes.Apart from concerns over the high number of deletions in urban areas, traditionally seen as BJP strongholds, the party also has another reason to worry about. “The ratio of deleted Muslims votes appears to be less than those of other religious groups. This is because Muslims enthusiastically participated in the SIR exercise. However, Hindus, especially BJP’s traditional voters in urban areas, did not show such enthusiasm. Also, Muslim percentage in the ‘shifted’ votes is relatively lesser,” a BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.