Lucknow: Two voter enumeration forms, both dated November 27, 2025, one signed by Asif Iqbal and another under the name of Mohammad Wamiq, have been carefully preserved inside a crumpled transparent polythene packet by Shujauddin Tarique, a resident of Prayagraj’s Atala locality. For a year, Tarique, a delivery worker for Blinkit, has been following up on his two younger brothers’ efforts to make it to the voter list during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) across Uttar Pradesh.“Two names [Asif and Wamiq’s] had been left out. So I had to fill Form 6, following which one name did appear back in the voters’ list. But one name is still pending. When I asked the Booth Level Officer 4-5 days ago, the procedure was still underway. Let’s see what happens in the next list,” said Tarique while talking to The Wire.Form 6 is a statutory form meant for the inclusion of new voters in the electoral rolls – a document that has been at the centre of a legal row. Its usage by the Election Commission for the re-inclusion of voters deleted during the SIR has been under the scanner since the form also carries a declaration that the applicant is not enlisted as a voter elsewhere. A false declaration can invite penal action under the Representation of the People Act, 1950.Also read: ‘Takkar Marna’ in UP Voter List: SP Flags Errors, BJP Alleges Duplicates On Eve of MLC PollsIn UP, where Assembly polls are scheduled for February 2027, the SIR was done in four steps which included filling up of enumeration forms, issuing notices followed by disposal of claims and objections and publication of the final revised voter list. While the first phase started on November 4, 2025, the process involved three extensions.Shujauddin Tarique, at his residence in Atala locality. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.As reported by The Wire earlier, over 84 lakh voters were added when the SIR draft list was published on April 10. At the same time, the number of proposed deletions stood at 2.89 crore (18.70% of the electorate).On October 15, the Election Commission (EC) announced a Special Summary Revision (SSR) in 17 states and Union Territories including Uttar Pradesh. The SSR is a special drive comprising another round of updating voter lists with an emphasis on those turning 18 at a specified cut-off date – January 1, 2027. The move followed criticism over revelations that two Election Commissioners strongly disagreed over how the SIR was carried out across the country.As part of the ongoing SSR in UP, the revised draft electoral roll is scheduled to be released on November 17. The final list across all 403 Assembly constituencies likely to be published on January 4, 2027, chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s remarks about 1.27 crore Hindu voters missing from the state’s electoral rolls has sparked a fresh controversy in the SIR saga.In order to understand the voter list related discrepancies in UP, The Wire visited four assembly constituencies in the Prayagraj district, Allahabad West, Allahabad South, Phulpur and Soraon, where we spoke with locals, including Muslims residents, and visited the rural parts of the district.Also read: Akhilesh Alleges BJP Plot to Import Voters Into UP After Yogi’s 1.27 Crore Missing Hindu Voters ClaimInterviews conducted in early November with voters and booth level workers of the principal opposition party, Samajwadi Party (Samajwadi Party), who have been raising concerns about the SIR exercise, revealed several instances of voters’ names either deleted or misspelt in the final list published by the Election Commission of India in April 2026.Irshad Ahmad, Congress party worker in Mau Aima village of Soraon assembly constituency. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.Such irregularities were accompanied by multiple instances of duplicate voters with dubious addresses allegedly making it to the final voter list in Allahabad West and Allahabad North constituency, respectively.The Wire tried contacting the District Election Officer (DEO) of Prayagraj, who happens to be District Magistrate (DM) Manish Verma, on his official number but didn’t get any response. We have sent a questionnaire at the official email ID of DM Prayagraj apprising him of irregularities in the revised electoral rolls. This story will be updated as and when there is a response from the concerned authority.Allahabad West constituency: Names of Muslim voters residing in Atala missing or misspeltForm 6 was not the only document Shujauddin Tarique was forced to fill in a bid to ensure that the names of his brothers are back in the voters’ list.A consistent spelling mistake in the name of his father meant that Tarique also landed up filling up additional Form 8 on behalf of two of his family members.Form 8 is used for voters to declare to the EC that they have shifted addresses or to make other changes in their records.“There are spelling mistakes throughout the list. Wahid which is usually spelt with a ‘W’ has been written as Vahid with a ‘V’. This, too, happened in my family. If such an ID is submitted somewhere else, the computer won’t accept it. There are 1-2 such instances as well in my family of ten members, which is why I have submitted Form 8,” said Tarique while speaking to The Wire.Also read: Election Commission Defers Uttar Pradesh Draft Electoral Roll to November 17Lamenting that Wamiq’s name is still missing from the list, Tarique told this reporter, “All they [BLOs] say is that they sent the forms to the Election Commission, now where exactly did the error happen, they can’t really say. Leaving our work daily and chasing officials causes dikkat (difficulty). They [his brothers] both had voter IDs earlier and were regularly voting,” said Tarique.“As per our own analysis of the final voter list, it is still riddled with numerous errors. There are cases wherein instead of father’s name, the name of mother appears in the list. In other cases, instead of father’s name, the grandfather appears in the list. Such errors are associated with [all] voters, be they Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian,” Sarfaraz Ahmad, a municipal councillor from the Samajwadi Party in the Atala area, told The Wire.Sarfaraz Ahmad (L) municipal corporator in Atala along with Meraj Ahmad (R) BLA from Samajwadi Party. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.In 2022, Atala mohalla had emerged as an epicentre of violence following a protest over remarks made against the Prophet Muhammad by now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Locals still blame ‘outsiders’ for the incident, and say that the UP Police resorted to wrongful detention of local men and used force against them.It is perhaps for this reason that Sarfaraz Ahmad along with a team of BLAs (Booth Level Agents) from the Samajwadi Party decided to do the legwork in order to ensure that no local is left out from the voter list.“I don’t know who is to be blamed. We have submitted several complaints earlier as well. There is no clarity whether the computer operator who processes all this data is at fault here,” said Ahmad, describing the anomalies in the final voter list.Atala comes under the Allahabad West Assembly constituency where former Cabinet minister in the UP government and BJP leader Sidharth Nath Singh is the incumbent MLA. A video of Singh recently went viral in which he is heard telling residents at a Durga Puja pandal to “vote [together] up to 70-80% so that the locality newly named Shri Krishnapuri, once considered the turf of mafia don Atiq Ahmed, doesn’t go back to being ‘Kasari Masari’.”The rather communal analogy was used to highlight a recent feat accomplished by Chief Minister Adityanath: he inaugurated a housing society on land allegedly acquired illegally by gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed.Also read: ‘We Fought for Freedom, Democracy. Where Is Our Vote?’: BSP Leader and Family Hit by UP SIR DeletionsIt is in this context as well that errors in the names of Muslim voters across Atala are being seen as a matter of concern.According to Meraj Ahmad, a BLA from the Samajwadi Party in Atala, several inconsistencies are evident in the revised voter ID card among his own family members. A common error is spelling mistakes and incorrect entries in connection with the relationship with either parent.“A major fault in the SIR list is that even if people shared their recent photos in the form, it has not been updated in the voter ID cards. Similarly with mobile numbers which, too, haven’t been added,” Meraj Ahmad told The Wire.He points to another pattern of errors in the printed voter ID cards, which means Form 8 had to be filed repeatedly simply to get a card with correct details.“In my family, while the voter ID card of my brother Mufees Ahmad lists my mother’s name under the column meant for father’s name, the voter ID card of my son mentions father’s name under the category of ‘Other’,” Ahmad explained, displaying the voter ID cards.His own voter ID card misspells Ahmad as ‘Ahamad’.Ahmad misspelt as Ahamad in voter ID card of Meraj Ahmad in Atala. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.In rural Phulpur and Soraon, Hindu and Muslim voters are missingAround 20 km away from Prayagraj, in Phulpur’s Malwa Khurd village, Jai Singh seemed worried about the fate of four of his family members whose names are missing in the SIR list released in April.“In my family, names of four persons have still not been included. They had voted in the 2019 [Lok Sabha] election and 2022 [UP Assembly] election and yet their names have been struck off,” said Singh.According to Raj Bahadur, in-charge of the Samajwadi Party in Phulpur constituency, most of those who have been excluded belong to the Muslim and Yadav communities, both traditional voters of the party.“I can show you proof that there still are several loopholes in the list and many names have been left out. These names were sent earlier as well from our side. There must be a dozen such instances from a single majra or mohalla,” Raj Bahadur said. A majra is a subunit within a village.Form 6 of family members of Jai Singh in Phulpur’s Malwa Khurd village. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.“Can we really trust this SIR? All that [Chief Election Commissioner] Gyanesh Kumar says is that all such individuals would be added back via Form 6. But the reality is that despite submitting the said form multiple times, some voters haven’t made it to the list. Why are [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi and [Home Minister Amit] Shah not taking action against such an Election Commission when democracy is being murdered right in front of us?” asked Raj Bahadur, as he held several forms of voters in his hands, which were yet to be submitted.Forms of voters belonging to Muslim and Yadav communities in Phulpur’s Malwa Khurd village. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.In another rural constituency, Mau Aima in Soraon tehsil, Irshad Ahmad, who once contested municipal elections on a Congress ticket, was anxious about the names of several of his family members missing in the SIR list. Ahmad first enrolled as a voter in 1984, and seemed perplexed why he couldn’t make it to the revised list.Amidst the roaring noise of looms weaving cloth used as astar or the lining of garments, the buzz among Congress party workers at Irshad Ahmad’s house was about the Muslims’ fear of exclusion during the ongoing SSR as well. For Ahmad, a personal anxiety stems from thoughts about whether those left out as voters would next face bulldozer action.A Muslim worker at a loom in Mau Aima village. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.Speaking to The Wire, Ahmad said, “My entire life, I used the opportunity to use the right to vote, be it the Gram Panchayat election or polls related to the selection of an MLA and MP. It is hurtful that my name has been left out. My name should have been there.”“I am a citizen of this country. I’m Hindustani. My father and grandfather belonged to this country. Today I’m being told that you are a bahari (outsider), so it doesn’t feel good,” he added.Rubeena Bano, a resident of Maudopur village in Soraon tehsil, is also in a fix over the status of her identity as a voter.“No one came to my house regarding the [SIR] form. I was told [by the BLO] that the parchi (form) with my name hadn’t come in yet. Even when I went to enquire about it, I was told not to bother them [BLOs] every now and then,” Rubeena told The Wire.Rubeena Bano resident of Maudopur village in Soraon tehsil. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.Allahabad South constituency: Declared dead in SIR without door-to-door surveyA cyber cafe in the Kareli locality under the Allahabad South Assembly constituency has been transformed into an SIR monitoring booth by the local Samajwadi Party workers.“People submitted SIR forms in large numbers last November. But when the list came out this April, we realised that women voters featured prominently among those deleted from the electoral rolls. So now we are helping such women fill up the forms again so that their name could be included in the revised list,” said Mohammad Haroon, Prayagraj Nagar secretary of the Samajwadi Party.Mohammad Haroon and Moin Habeebi at cyber cafe in Kareli locality. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.“Some cases did approach us who were alive but had been declared dead on paper,” Haroon said, showing forms filled by Muslim women voters in Kareli who had complied with SIR related formalities twice.“Around 3,000 names were deleted in this area. At least 2,000 such individuals belong to the minority group while another 1,000 belong to other social groups. A specific reason was never given by the Election Commission behind such deletions,” Moin Habeebi, Vice President of the Samajwadi Party, Prayagraj Mahanagar chipped in.Allahabad South assembly constituency has also been a traditionally BJP stronghold. The former UP Assembly Speaker, the late Kesari Nath Tripathi, won from the Allahabad South Assembly constituency six consecutive times between 1989 and 2002. Since 2022, Cabinet minister and BJP leader, Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’ represents this seat.Perhaps that is why workers like Habeebi and Haroon are keeping an eye on voters at every booth.In the Gaud Nagar area of Kareli, Liaqat Ali showed his sister’s voter ID card: Mushtari Begum has had a valid voter ID card since 1995. “Her name was there in the list but then NRC forms were filled up, following which her name was struck off. So I submitted Form 6 and still her name didn’t appear in the list. Then I filled up the form on her behalf for the third time, after which her name appeared in the voter list again,” Liaqat Ali told The Wire.In our conversations, Liaqat would often refer to the SIR form as NRC – the National Register of Citizens – form, an exercise carried out across Assam under the Supreme Court’s supervision that led to the exclusion of 1.9 million people as citizens.For Shehnaz Bano, another Gaud Nagar resident who runs a grocery store, frequently follow-ups on her SIR form have brought anxiety into her life.Shehnaz Bano resident of Gaud Nagar in Kareli whose name was deleted in the SIR list. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.“I’m the caretaker of this house. Don’t I need to have a voter ID? I need to have this ID for the sake of my kids, given that their father is no longer with us. While others can do the running around, I can’t do so every day,” said Shehnaz Bano.Thousands of entries related to duplicate votersA ‘Digital Room’ has been set up at the office of Samajwadi Party located on Jawaharlal Nehru road in Prayagraj to track duplicate voter related entries in the SIR list.Bundles of voter lists comprising such entries as they appear in the revised list have been kept at the Digital Room and broadly clubbed into three categories:Prayagraj West [Identical Duplicates]Prayagraj West [Identical Duplicates with different house numbers]Prayagraj North [Identical Duplicates with different house numbers]List of Identical Duplicates in the Prayagraj West Assembly Constituency. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.As per the party’s allegation, while the Allahabad South Assembly constituency has 8,971 such duplicate voters, the figures for the Allahabad West Assembly constituency and Allahabad South Assembly constituency stand at around 7,800 and 8,000 duplicate voters, respectively.The Wire went through the list of duplicate voters compiled for Prayagraj West and Prayagraj North. Here’s some of what we found:A voter named Annu Saroj appears in the voter list thrice with three different Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers while the column under relative name and house number remains the same.Similarly Mohammad Mubtalib Ansari’s name appears in the list thrice with three different EPIC nos.Finally, there also exists anomalies in addresses mentioned in the list. For instance, a voter named Aditya Gupta appears twice with two different EPIC nos. The address that appears both the times also remains the same and is listed as ‘78D/5L/1C’ which seems to be an absurd location with no mention of the lane or mohalla where such a house may be found.Speaking to The Wire, Dan Bahadur Singh Bahadur, national spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party said, “The allegation on behalf of our party has been that in the final SIR list published, with respect to voters in Allahabad [Prayagraj], our apprehension is that duplicates among voters ranges up to 1 lakh in numbers. We did send complaints to the concerned district election officials in June this year. But no changes are currently being reflected in the voter list. We hope that this is taken into account in the revised list [SSR] which is scheduled to be published in January 2027.”When asked about the potential fallout of such duplicate voters with Assembly elections around the corner, Bahadur said, “Our fear is that the ruling party is intentionally nurturing such duplicate voters just so that such dubious voters cast their vote in its favour.”At the BJP’s office in Prayagraj, a different political tune seems to be at play, with hoardings of the ‘Loktantra Bachao Padyatara’ (Save Democracy March) which concluded recently under the leadership of Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya displayed outside the entrance gate.Also read: ‘13,150 Names Altered’: UP CEO Orders Action Against Officials After Opposition Flags Glitches in Pilibhit Voter ListThe BJP’s protest march took placed after a massive rally organised on November 1 against “vote chori” at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, in which Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi led the INDIA bloc against the alleged theft (deletion) of votes during SIR.Speaking to The Wire, Dr Shailesh Kumar Pandey, BJP zila mahamantri (general secretary) in Prayagraj said, “SIR itself means that duplicate voters can be removed from the list. Prayagraj is known for having a large population of students who enrol themselves as voters and eventually move out to other cities. So, yes, they would be counted as bogus voters. So when the Opposition is saying that duplicates should be removed, we are also stating the same thing.”BJP Zila Mahamantri (General Secretary) Prayagraj Dr Shailesh Kumar Pandey. Photo: Akanksha Kumar.On the specific issues regarding voters with similar names and listed with different EPIC numbers, Pandey said, “Yes, such problems have come to our notice that individuals with different EPIC numbers but bearing a similar name appear in the list. These are those individuals who while residing at one place moved to another location within the city with the EPIC number changing but their address wasn’t updated as such. This is a fact that Hindu voters have been left out either due to the fault of BLO or error in mapping the parents of such individuals. But similar problems are being seen even among Muslim voters.”Note that relocating does not change a voter’s EPIC number. The Election Commission’s standard procedure is to retain the same number even when the voter moves to another constituency.