Overview
- Phase 2 of the Special Intensive Revision, which the Election Commission completed Friday with Uttar Pradesh’s final list, reduced combined rolls by 10.2% to 45.81 crore after about 7.2–7.36 crore deletions and roughly 2 crore fresh entries.
- Uttar Pradesh’s final roll stands at 13.39 crore after about 2.04–2.05 crore deletions, with 84.28 lakh names added since the January draft as urban districts such as Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Kanpur Nagar, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Meerut and Agra recorded the steepest drops.
- In West Bengal, about 60 lakh names went to judicial adjudication and roughly 27 lakh were deleted after verification, with reporting noting that deletions in 44 constituencies exceed the 2021 winning margins, raising stakes for the April assembly vote.
- The revision relied on house-to-house checks, “logical discrepancy” flags and hearings, with EC sources citing about 5 crore hearing notices and data showing 66.9 lakh deceased voters removed, as officials stress that deletions followed due process with avenues for appeal.
- Legal challenges from West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are before the Supreme Court, and the EC plans a third phase after current state polls to cover about 40 crore electors across 17 states and five Union territories, which could further shift local voter profiles and campaign tactics.