Written by Lalmani VermaLucknow | January 18, 2026 10:46 AM IST 3 min readThe draft electoral roll published on January 6, after the first phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Uttar Pradesh, shows a decline in the gender ratio (GR) from 877 females per 1,000 males to 824, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Ranwa said on Saturday. In total, names of 1.54 crore female electors were deleted, out of 2.89 crore deletions, which is around 20 lakh more than the number of male voters deleted.Sharing these details, CEO Navdeep Rinwa said that among 12.55 crore electors, who are in the draft electoral roll, there are 5.67 crore women and 6.88 crore men. The highest decline in gender ratio of 133 was recorded in Sahibabad where the numbers dropped from 779 to 646.Officials said that there was potential for improving the gender ratio in the electoral rolls because the sex ratio in the state was 912 females per 1,000 males as per the 2011 Census.Rinwa said that earlier, there was large-scale duplication of names of women electors because of registration both at parental and in-laws addresses. Those names were deleted from the addresses from where they did not submit the enumeration form.Officials said that in July 2025, there were 71.18 lakh women electors of 25 years and above, who had shown their father’s name in their details. Number of such women electors has come down to 29.04 lakh in the draft electoral roll.Urban polling booths in the state recorded 28 per cent deletion of names as compared to rural booths which recorded 15.23 per cent deletion. Before the exercise began, there were 4.16 crore electors in urban polling booths which came down to 2.99 crore, after deletion of 1.17 crore names. In rural booths, electors’ number dropped from 11.28 crore to 9.56 crore.Also, 2.22 crore electors have been detected with “logical discrepancies” in the details they filed in their enumeration forms. These electors will be issued notices, the officials said, adding that they are not among the 1.04 crore “unmapped” voters whose details could not be confirmed with the 2003 base rolls.Story continues below this adIn total, 3.26 crore electors will be issued notices and hearings will be held at 3793 places from January 21, for which the CEO has deputed 9154 officers.The “logical discrepancies” include instances of unusual age gaps wherein a voter’s age is 15 years or less, or is 50 years or more than their parent, or those whose age difference with their grandparent is 40 years or less. An official said the enumeration forms sought details of voters as per the last intensive electoral roll of 2003. If a voter’s name was not found, they were asked to provide the names of their parents or grandparents, a process referred to as “mapping”.However, during the scrutiny of enumeration forms, it was found that many 2025 voters who don’t appear in the 2003 rolls have linked themselves to 2003 voters as their parents, but these links contradict the parental names listed in their 2025 records.Lalmani is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, and is based in New Delhi. He covers politics of the Hindi Heartland, tracking BJP, Samajwadi Party, BSP, RLD and other parties based in UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand. Covered the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, 2019 and 2024; Assembly polls of 2012, 2017 and 2022 in UP along with government affairs in UP and Uttarakhand. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Special Intensive Revision