UP’s Special Electoral Revision Triggers BJP Alarm as Urban Voters Shift to Rural Rolls, Threatening Party’s Traditional Strongholds
As Uttar Pradesh approaches the end of the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the BJP is confronting an unexpected and potentially damaging trend: a significant number of urban voters are transferring their votes to ancestral village addresses.
This shift, party strategists fear, could weaken the BJP in urban constituencies—areas that have long served as its strongest political bastions.
The issue has quickly escalated into a matter of organisational urgency. Reports of large-scale movement of urban votes prompted an immediate response last week, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath instructing all BJP MPs and MLAs to prioritise SIR.
In an online meeting, Adityanath directed leaders to personally assess the situation in their constituencies and ensure maximum retention of urban voters. The directive triggered a statewide mobilisation:
Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, state president Bhupendra Chaudhary, and general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh have since been holding rapid consultations and field meetings across urban districts.
Sources within the party said the leadership has gone as far as advising MPs, MLAs, and office-bearers to avoid attending weddings and other social functions in the coming days, dedicating their time instead to supervising SIR.
On Sunday, Adityanath held detailed discussions with party officials from Saharanpur and Aligarh, signalling the seriousness of the situation.
In Lucknow alone, party estimates suggest that 10–12% of the electorate—potentially 2.6 lakh voters across urban Lok Sabha constituencies—may shift their votes to rural addresses.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who represents Lucknow in Parliament, has reportedly spoken to Bhupendra Chaudhary about the emerging concerns. BJP national president J.P. Nadda has also sought updates from state leaders.
A BJP leader from Lucknow explained the trend: many urban residents own property in nearby districts and fear that failing to remain registered in their native villages could weaken their claims to ancestral land.
“We are requesting them to retain their city votes. If they insist on shifting, we are asking that only one family member move their name to the village list while the rest remain on the urban rolls,” the leader said.
Another concern is the traditionally low polling turnout among urban voters. “If their votes shift to rural constituencies, they may not travel long distances to cast their ballots.
That could hurt us, especially because many of these voters are BJP supporters,” a senior party leader added.
The party realised the scale of the problem after noticing unusually low submission of enumeration forms in several urban seats. In Prayagraj alone, nearly 2 lakh voters have reportedly opted to revert to their village addresses.
BJP leaders and Booth Level Agents (BLAs) are now making phone calls, door-to-door visits, and holding micro-meetings to reassure voters that their village property rights will not be affected by remaining registered in the city.
This migration could have sharp electoral consequences. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress won the Allahabad seat by a margin of 58,795 votes.
The exit of around 2 lakh urban voters could make it significantly harder for the BJP to regain ground in the 2027 Assembly elections—particularly if even a quarter of these voters are from its core support base.
In Ayodhya (Faizabad constituency), nearly 41,000 voters have shifted to rural rolls.
The party’s organisational machinery is in full swing. Dharampal Singh conducted four meetings in Varanasi—Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency—on December 3, engaging MLAs, corporators, panchayat members and party functionaries.
He later held review meetings in Agra and Mathura. Party insiders said Singh reprimanded some leaders for their lack of seriousness regarding SIR.
Bhupendra Chaudhary has held back-to-back meetings in Ayodhya, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi and Jaunpur. Keshav Prasad Maurya has chaired coordination meetings in Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Mirzapur and Jhansi, while Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak has focused on Noida, Ghaziabad, Barabanki and Sitapur.
The BJP’s anxiety is grounded in its electoral history. Since 2017, urban constituencies have consistently been the party’s strongest turf.
Even during setbacks, the BJP has dominated these areas. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, though the party’s tally in UP dropped from 62 seats in 2019 to 33, it still won 12 of the 17 urban constituencies.
The SP secured Faizabad (Ayodhya), Firozabad and Moradabad, while Congress captured Allahabad and Saharanpur.
The pattern was similar in the 2022 Assembly polls, where the BJP won 65 of 86 urban Assembly segments, the SP 18, and ally Apna Dal (Soneylal) three. In 2012, when the Opposition last formed government in UP, the BJP’s slender tally of 47 seats included 25 urban constituencies—showing the party’s longstanding reliance on city voters.
In the 2023 urban local body elections, the BJP swept all 17 mayoral posts and secured 57% of corporator seats in municipal corporations, further underscoring its dominance in urban politics.
The sudden outflow of urban voters, therefore, represents not just a technical challenge in the electoral rolls but a potential political setback—one that the BJP is scrambling to contain as the SIR deadline approaches.
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