‘Antim mauka’: In Uttar Pradesh, BJP sets target for restoring deleted Hindu voters

Days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that 1.27 crore Hindus had been excluded from the state’s electoral rolls and the number of Muslim voters had increased by 1.65% during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the BJP has urged its leaders to work on a war footing to ensure that most of these names are added back to the voter list during the ongoing Special Summary Revision (SSR) of the rolls, The Indian Express has learnt.

The 1.27 crore figure across UP’s 403 Assembly constituencies comes up to an average of just over 31,000 such voters allegedly excluded from the rolls in each seat. The BJP has set its district leaders a target to ensure that 10,000 to 25,000 such voters in each constituency are added back to the rolls, sources said, adding this translates to at least 50 voters in each polling booth.

The drive is expected to begin on November 20, three days after the SSR draft rolls are published. Leaders privy to the discussions said Adityanath had labelled the next month “antim mauka (last chance)” to bring back these eligible voters and emphasised that opportunity should not be missed.

While the draft rolls after this special summary revision are scheduled to be released on November 17, the claims and objections period will run until December 16. The electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on January 4, 2027.

The CM also directed party leaders to compare the Assembly voter lists with the electoral rolls for panchayat polls and the list of government welfare scheme beneficiaries to figure out who had been left out of the Assembly election rolls.

While the Election Commission of India (ECI) prepares the rolls for the Assembly polls, the State Election Commission (SEC) prepares the rolls for the panchayat polls. For the BJP leadership, the concern is that the party won several seats in the 2022 Assembly polls by 1,500-3,000 votes and if the rolls shrink by even 5,000-10,000 voters, it could bring these constituencies into play.

Sources said Maurya has told those at the meeting that the difference between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) was 1.55 crore votes in 2017 and this shrank to 85 lakh in 2022. This makes the number flagged by the CM a matter of concern, sources said.

“If we consider the data of 1.27 crore names, their average deletion is 31,513 votes per Assembly constituency, which is a significant number. So, the party has set a goal to reach out to left out eligible voters and bring back to the rolls an average of 10,000-25,000 names,” said a senior BJP leader.

Sources further said that the BJP had decided to focus on the voters who have shifted to another constituency in the state or have migrated to another state. There will also be an emphasis on including more women and youth in the rolls.

“During SIR, a sizable number of urban voters opted to shift to their rural addresses. This created a problem for the party in urban regions, which have been its traditional zone of strength. We will speak to such voters and help them fill forms to shift back to the urban seats.

Similarly, people who migrated to other states and got enrolled as voters there will be requested to shift their votes back to UP,” said a BJP office-bearer. “The gender ratio in the existing roll is 834 and the party’s assessment is that lots of women were left out or their names were deleted for various reasons during SIR.

If they are eligible, the party will help them get enrolled.” “The party will not pay much attention to the Muslim-dominated seats it never wins. We will deploy our workers in the constituencies where Hindu voters were deleted in large numbers during SIR and which we can win if their names are restored,” said the leader.

“The BJP will hold district and Assembly-level meetings by November 19 to discuss the strategy with ground-level workers. From November 20, our leaders and booth-level agents will fan out across booths,” said a leader who attended the Friday meeting with Adityanath.

Lalmani is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, and is based in New Delhi. He covers politic... Read More