Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s claim that 1.27 crore Hindu voters are missing from the state’s electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has triggered a fresh political controversy in the state ahead of the Assembly elections due next year. His assertion that the number of Muslim voters increased by 1.65 per cent after the exercise has drawn sharp reactions from opposition parties, which have accused him of giving a communal colour to an issue concerning the constitutional right to vote.
The controversy has also placed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in an uncomfortable position. While the party’s central leadership has consistently defended the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the SIR exercise against opposition allegations, the Chief Minister’s claim has raised questions about the credibility of the same revision process.
Adityanath, speaking at a Aaj Tak Panchayat programme, claimed that 1.27 crore Hindu voters whose names figured in Uttar Pradesh’s panchayat electoral rolls were missing from the Election Commission’s electoral rolls. He also cited 66 lakh voters whose names allegedly appeared in local electoral records, around 55 lakh Hindu beneficiaries of government welfare schemes and 4.5 lakh voters in the 18–19 age group.
The Chief Minister said the BJP had submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission seeking the inclusion of eligible voters whose names were missing. He questioned how such a large number of Hindu voters had disappeared from the rolls and who was responsible.
However, the breakdown cited by the Chief Minister has not been independently established through publicly available Election Commission data. The state’s electorate declined from approximately 15.44 crore before the SIR exercise to around 13.39 crore in the final rolls published on 10 April 2026, a net reduction of nearly 2.05 crore electors. The scale of the reduction has become a major political issue, but the overall figures do not, by themselves, establish the religion of those whose names are missing.
The Samajwadi Party (SP), the principal opposition party in the state, has questioned the basis of Adityanath’s figures, describing his allegations as confusing and unsupported by verifiable evidence.
The Samajwadi Party (SP), the principal opposition party in the state, has questioned the basis of Adityanath’s figures, describing his allegations as confusing and unsupported by verifiable evidence.
SP leader Udaiveer Singh said that if the Chief Minister believed there were serious discrepancies in the electoral rolls, he should hold the officials responsible rather than merely making public statements.
He questioned whether the SIR exercise had been conducted by state government employees and asked why the Chief Minister was not taking action against those responsible for alleged negligence in preparing the electoral rolls.
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