BJP Sounds Alert After Massive Voter Deletions in UP Draft Rolls, Sets Ambitious Enrolment Drive Ahead of 2027 Polls

By Tajdar Zaidi

Lucknow: Alarm bells are ringing within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh following the release of the draft electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India, which revealed the deletion of a staggering 2.89 crore names — nearly 18.7% of the state’s electorate.

The scale of exclusions, coming barely a year ahead of the crucial 2027 Assembly elections, has triggered serious concern within the ruling party and prompted an urgent course correction.

According to the draft rolls, Uttar Pradesh now has 12.55 crore registered voters, even as it tops the country in the number of deletions.

The EC has attributed the removals largely to voters being marked as deceased, shifted to other locations, absent during verification, or found enrolled at multiple places.

Within hours of the data being made public, the BJP’s top state leadership convened a high-level meeting to assess the implications and chart out a response.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and state BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary held a virtual interaction with ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, senior office-bearers and district presidents.

Sources said the leadership conveyed deep unease over the unusually high number of deletions and stressed the need for immediate, coordinated action at the grassroots.

As part of the strategy, the party has set a clear and ambitious target: ensuring the addition of at least 200 voters at every polling booth before the rolls are finalised.

With 1.77 lakh polling booths currently in place after a recent rationalisation exercise, this translates into a push to add more than 3.5 crore voters across the state.

“These additions are expected to come from multiple categories — first-time young voters, names wrongly deleted due to documentation issues or clerical errors, voters marked untraceable or unmapped, and those who may have been left out during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR),” a senior BJP leader explained.

The target, he added, is based on internal estimates that Uttar Pradesh currently has around 15.5 crore eligible voters.

The Election Commission has opened a window from January 6 to February 6 for filing claims and objections related to additions and deletions.

The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on March 6, giving parties a narrow but critical timeframe to intervene.

The BJP leadership has also identified migrant voters as a key focus area. Party workers have been asked to reach out to people originally from Uttar Pradesh who are currently working in other states and have enrolled as voters there.

“If someone from UP is registered as a voter in Delhi or another state where no Assembly elections are due soon, we will request them to shift their enrolment back to Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2027 polls,” a senior leader said.

Another sensitive category under discussion has been voters enrolled in two Assembly constituencies — typically one at their place of employment and another at their native rural address.

Party leaders said that apprehensions surrounding SIR have led many such voters to retain their rural registration.

However, there is concern that long travel distances may discourage them from voting on polling day. BJP workers have been instructed to persuade such voters to remain registered in the constituency where they can vote most conveniently.

Beyond electoral mechanics, the meeting also touched upon outreach related to governance.

Leaders were asked to intensify awareness campaigns around the Viksit Bharat–GrAM G Act, with a focus on explaining the benefits of the revised rural employment guarantee framework to villagers and beneficiaries.

With the clock ticking towards finalisation of the voter rolls, the BJP’s renewed mobilisation reflects both political anxiety and urgency — a recognition that electoral arithmetic, as much as governance narratives, could decisively shape the 2027 contest in India’s most politically significant state.

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