New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal Tuesday said that the names of his family members and himself have been deleted from the draft electoral roll in Uttar Pradesh under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision exercise in the state.
Sappal and his family had moved a year ago to Noida from UP’s Sahibabad constituency. He also posted on X Tuesday that his and his family members’ names were in the 2003 voter list and in the last election’s voter list, and that their parents’ names were also in the 2003 list. They had submitted the documents for inclusion in the draft roll from the Noida constituency.
“Those who shift to a new place, their name gets deleted from the older place, but there is no provision to include them in the new place. They will have to fill form 6 again, and then they are treated as new voters,” Sappal told ThePrint. “Being a new voter means my old record has disappeared. So in the future, if there is an SIR, and they impose a condition like they did this time for showing our names in the 2003 electoral rolls, that record will now be wiped off. So it’s a double whammy.”
In a press note issued Tuesday on the draft electoral roll, the Election Commission of India had clarified that if a voter’s name has not been found in the draft voter list, Form 6 is required to be filled for inclusion of the name, and submitted along with a declaration form and other required documents.
In response to Sappal’s X post, the office of Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer affirmed the fact that Sappal now needs to fill out Form 6 to get his name included in the voter list of Noida district. It said that the situation had arisen because he had shifted houses.
गुरदीप जी धन्यवाद। आपने अपनी पोस्ट में आपके और आपके परिवार के सदस्यों का नाम वोटर लिस्ट से कटने का सही कारण भी बताया कि आप ग़ाज़ियाबाद से नोएडा शिफ़्ट कर गए हैं। BLO ने अपना कार्य सही ढंग से किया है जो आपका नाम ग़ाज़ियाबाद ज़िले की वोटर लिस्ट से काट दिया । आपको और आपके परिवार के… https://t.co/a9XLRonSGt
— CEO Uttar Pradesh (@ceoup) January 6, 2026
The office of CEO UP also posted that it would not be correct to say that Sappal’s name had been deleted from both the constituencies (old and new), since his name was not in the new constituency in the first place. It emphasised the fact that this is just the draft voter list, and that the final one is yet to be published.
आपकी पोस्ट के बिन्दु संख्या 2 के बारे में यह कहना है कि जब आपका नाम नई जगह की वोटर लिस्ट में जुड़ा ही नहीं है तो आपका नाम दोनों जगहों से काटने की बात कहना सही नहीं है। जिस नई जगह आप शिफ़्ट किए हैं उस घर के पते को डालकर आप फ़ॉर्म 6 भर सकते हैं । आपकी जैसी ही स्थिति में और लोग… https://t.co/SyIu4MrIGb
— CEO Uttar Pradesh (@ceoup) January 7, 2026
However, speaking to ThePrint, Sappal called the deletion a “lifelong problem”, saying that he would now be noted as a “new voter” in ECI records. “It’s a systemic issue in the ECI that you have not created a system for voters who have shifted their residence, despite submitting all the documents, you are asking them to register as new voters after SIR… which will wipe off my earlier record,” he said.
“Normally, if you had moved within the same state, then ideally the shift should just be done directly, because I filed all the papers from the new place,” he told ThePrint, calling it a “systemic issue, not a personal grievance”.
‘Not an unknown individual’
In a post on X, Sappal alleged that there are crores of voters whose names have been deleted on the same grounds.
“Moreover, I am not an unknown individual. I have worked as Joint Secretary to the Vice President of India and in Rajya Sabha Secretariat. I am also a member of Congress Working Committee and a familiar face on TV. In fact, I have also been a part of Congress delegations to Election Commission on SIR and other issues! The BLO is also familiar with it. Yet our names were deleted!” he wrote.
Draft SIR Voter List for Uttar Pradesh is out.
My name and my family members names are deleted!
Whereas:
Our names were in 2003 voter list
Our names were also in last election’s voter list
Our parents names were also in 2003 voter list
We had deposited required documents as per…
— Gurdeep Singh Sappal (@gurdeepsappal) January 6, 2026
The Uttar Pradesh draft voter list released by the Election Commission Tuesday proposed to delete 2.89 crore voters, or 18.7 percent of the state’s existing electors. This is the highest deletion among all states and Union Territories where the exercise has been conducted so far. While Tamil Nadu saw the removal of 97.37 lakh voters (15.19 percent), Gujarat had 73.73 lakh voters (14.4 percent) struck off the voter list.
Out of the total deleted voters, 46.23 lakh (2.99 percent) were found to be deceased, 2.17 crore (14.06 percent) absent or having shifted, and another 25.47 lakh (1.65 percent) with enrolments at multiple places.
The filing of claims and objections starts Tuesday, and will continue till 6 February. In parallel, the commission is issuing notices for hearings and verifications, which will continue till 27 February.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
Also Read: 2.89 cr names struck off electoral roll in UP draft SIR; highest deletions in Lucknow, Ghaziabad