At 30%, Lucknow reports highest per cent of deletions; over 1 crore voters have been put in 'unmapped category'

Another 25.5 lakh, constituting over 1.6% of the electorate, were enrolled at two places. A total of 79.5 lakh (5.1%) voters couldn't be traced while 46.2 lakh (almost 3%) were dead. More than 7.7 lakh (0.5%) voters didn't return filled-in enumeration forms.

Lucknow reported the highest percentage of deletions at 30%, followed by Ghaziabad (28.8%), Balrampur (26%) and Kanpur Nagar (25.5%). Lalitpur had the least deletions at 9.9%, with Hamirpur (10.8%) and Mahoba (12.4%) just behind.




"Over 1 crore (8%) out of 12.5 crore voters either couldn't trace their lineage on the rolls or their names weren't in the 2003 SIR list. Such voters have been put in the 'unmapped' category and will be issued notices in the next 31 days. These voters will have to submit one of 12 documents listed in the notice," chief electoral officer Rinwa said.

During the enumeration phase, over 15.7 lakh people submitted Form 6, meant for enrolment of new voters. These names, if valid, will be part of the final rolls.

In Lucknow, around 5.3 lakh of the 12 lakh names deleted from the draft rolls were of voters who opted to shift to their native places while 4.2 lakh couldn't be traced.

An official said the high rate of "permanently shifted voters" - at 8.4%, almost double of Bihar's 4.6% - wasn't a surprise. He cited a Down to Earth survey in 2021 that pegged the migration rate for UP at around 28.4%, twice as much as Bihar's 14.2%.

The original December 4 deadline for completion of enumeration extended twice - first till December 11 and then December 26 - after it was found that a large number of voters were excluded from the draft rolls.

"The publication date of draft rolls was fixed as December 31, but parallel fieldwork and ECI's instructions to rationalise polling stations led to a delay," Rinwa said. Authorities will process claims and objections till February 27.
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