‘How can you remove names without checking?’: Inside Prayagraj’s battle over voter lists

The release of the draft electoral rolls under UP’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has left many residents of Prayagraj’s western and southern assembly constituencies anxious. Since January 11, the Election Commission has set up claims and objections booths across the city.

When Newslaundry visited two such booths, we found that many voters had been dropped from the 2026 draft rolls even though their family members’ names featured in the 2003 electoral list.

Ahmad Abbas, a local resident of Prayagraj, said that his mother and uncle's names were on the 2003 voter list, but they are missing from the 2026 draft voter list. Referring to a significant number of such cases, he said, “If so many people are not on the list or have been removed without checking, how can you remove them? There needs to be some clarity on that.”

Meanwhile, four members of Asif Iqbal's family are missing from the 2026 list. The daily-wage painter, who earns Rs 700 a day, has been forced to make repeated trips to his local SIR booth to get their names included – each visit meaning a day without wages.

The concern extends to Prayagraj’s Phulpur parliamentary constituency, once the seat of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Here, a large number of Form-6 applications remain unsubmitted, deepening fears of mass voter deletions among locals.

Opposition party workers, particularly from the Samajwadi Party, are concerned about delays in processing Form 6 applications for voters whose names were left off the draft electoral rolls in rural areas. “In Malwa Khurd village, we submitted Form 6 applications on behalf of 200-300 people, but their names still haven't been added to the voter list. Most of the names that were deleted belonged to people from the Yadav community or Muslims,” said Raj Bahadur of the Samajwadi Party.

Local BJP workers, meanwhile, are working to add more names to the voter rolls by setting up separate enrollment kiosks alongside the official SIR booths. 

What are the gaps in the special intensive revision process that has been underway for the past two months? And how are local BJP leaders allegedly operating booth by booth during the claims and objections phase to get names added? 

Watch.

In times of misinformation, you need news you can trust. We’ve got you covered. Subscribe to Newslaundry and power our work.