Missing 1.27 Crore Hindu Voters And The 2027 Stakes: Why Yogi Adityanath Is Questioning UP’s SIR

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that 1.27 crore Hindu voters are missing from the state’s Election Commission rolls after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), while the number of Muslim electors has risen by 1.65%, raising alarm on the process ahead of the state assembly elections.

He has asked the poll panel to investigate the discrepancy and include eligible voters.

At the Aaj Tak Panchayat programme, UP CM said his finding comes after comparing the Election Commission’s Assembly rolls with voter lists used for panchayat elections. He said the state had submitted a memorandum to the Commission seeking a review.

The chief minister cited 66 lakh people listed on panchayat rolls, 55 lakh Hindu beneficiaries of government welfare schemes and 4.5 lakh voters aged 18 or 19 as groups whose names he said were missing from the Assembly rolls. He also called for deceased voters and alleged foreign infiltrators to be removed, while insisting eligible electors must be included. The figures he listed are categories he says are affected; they do not, by themselves, establish the total of 1.27 crore missing voters.

The comparison has become a live issue for election officials too. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer has directed district election officers to match Assembly rolls with panchayat and urban local body lists after a reported gap emerged between the records.

The state’s final electorate fell from about 15.44 crore before the SIR to 13.39 crore in the roll published in April, a net reduction of around 2.04 crore. During the claims-and-objections process, 84.28 lakh voters were added to the final list.

'Only The Wearer Best Knows When The Shoe Pinches,' Says Akhilesh Yadav

Adityanath has accused the Opposition of spreading misinformation about the SIR and argued that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is reluctant to seek a rollback because the number of Muslim voters has increased. Yadav.

Sharing a clip of Adityanath’s interview on X, Yadav challenged him to repost an earlier statement if he genuinely believed that 1.27 crore votes had been deleted. “Only the wearer best knows when the shoe pinches,” he wrote, saying the chief minister was now voicing concerns the Opposition had raised about the revision.

Yadav has also proposed linking Aadhaar with voter identification, issuing metal EPIC cards and using fingerprints or iris scans to verify voters. SP spokesperson Udaiveer Singh asked Adityanath to support action against election officials if he believed the revision was not transparent. He also questioned the source of the chief minister’s community-wise estimates.

The voter-roll dispute has spilled into the parties’ broader campaign exchanges ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.

Kejriwal Says 'Had Warned' Yogi Before, Congratulates Akhilesh

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal also reacted to Adityanath’s remarks. In a post on X, he alleged that the Election Commission acted at the direction of “two people” and said he had warned the chief minister earlier. “These two are out to finish you off. Congratulations in advance to Akhilesh ji,” Kejriwal wrote.

The Election Commission is continuing its roll-matching exercise, while Uttar Pradesh’s next voter-enrolment revision is due to begin on November 12. Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa has said he will address questions about the process after the draft roll is published on November 17.

Uttar Pradesh is expected to hold Assembly elections in early 2027, though the Election Commission has yet to announce the dates. The BJP-led NDA has governed the state since 2017, with the Samajwadi Party its main political challenger.