From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Even as opposition parties keep up their street agitation over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and continue to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the Election Commission of India has begun a detailed assessment of preparations for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. On Monday, senior officials reviewed readiness across 18 districts spanning four divisions in western Uttar Pradesh.
The meeting, held in Meerut and chaired by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg, was attended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa and other senior Commission officials. Officers from the Meerut, Saharanpur, Moradabad and Aligarh divisions took part. The districts covered include Meerut, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Amroha, Bijnor, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Aligarh, Etah, Hathras and Kasganj. Discussions centred on the purification of voter lists, polling station infrastructure, management of EVMs and VVPATs, training of election staff, and law-and-order coordination.
Garg underlined that both newly appointed district election officers and police chiefs, as well as those with prior experience, needed to treat the review with equal seriousness. He noted that election rules and guidelines are revised from time to time and urged officials to revisit the issues raised with a fresh perspective. He specifically directed that minimum assured facilities at polling stations be ensured, EVM awareness programmes be launched, and strict surveillance be maintained against the illegal movement and distribution of liquor, including checks at the source and exit points of distilleries. He also asked for practical arrangements for mobile phone deposit boxes on polling day, with the help of volunteers, and stressed the need to train state-level master trainers while familiarising staff with postal ballot procedures.
CEO Navdeep Rinwa, for his part, instructed officials to conduct special enrolment drives in Classes 11 and 12 and in degree colleges so that young people becoming eligible for the first time are brought onto the rolls. He directed district election officers to re-examine rejected Form 6 applications to ensure that eligible citizens are not left out, and to recheck all Forms 6, 7 and 8 processed by computer assistants after the conclusion of the SIR. Applicants, he said, must furnish accurate mobile numbers and complete addresses, while Common Service Centre operators should be trained without delay in the online application process and in steps to prevent multiple entries. He further ordered that voter information slips be distributed five days before polling and that the distribution be properly recorded in the registers of booth-level officers. Missing voters, he added, should be identified by cross-matching panchayat and assembly rolls.
The timing of the review is hard to separate from the political climate surrounding the SIR. On 1 November, the INDIA bloc organised a large rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan after a march that brought together leaders and workers from several parties. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi described the revision exercise as “vote chori” and an assault on the right to vote, alleging large-scale deletions of names. He and others, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, have repeatedly called for Gyanesh Kumar’s removal, arguing that the process has been opaque and has disproportionately affected ordinary citizens. A day earlier, opposition parties staged a symbolic “public impeachment” of the CEC, adopting a resolution that accused him of facilitating deletions.
In Uttar Pradesh itself, the Samajwadi Party and Congress have organised protests under banners such as “Vote Bachao-Desh Bachao,” raising slogans demanding Kumar’s resignation and pointing to reported irregularities, including bulk Form 7 applications and unexplained post-SIR changes. Controversies have ranged from software-related anomalies in voter lists to irregularities flagged in Pilibhit involving thousands of entries and questions over the transparency of Form 6 applications. The state’s electoral roll recorded a net reduction of around two crore names during the SIR, which the Commission has characterised as a necessary clean-up of deceased, shifted, duplicate and untraceable entries. Opposition parties have contested both the scale and the process. The Supreme Court has also asked the ECI to examine certain complaints about bulk Form 7 submissions.
The Commission has maintained that the SIR and the subsequent reviews are routine steps aimed at accurate rolls and free and fair elections. It has rejected charges of bias and pointed to the legal remedies available through claims and objections. The BJP has dismissed the protests as politically motivated and announced counter-mobilisations, including padyatras in Uttar Pradesh.
With the present Uttar Pradesh Assembly’s term running until May 2027, the Meerut meeting marks the start of closer ECI oversight of the state’s election machinery. Further reviews of the remaining divisions are expected even as the confrontation over the SIR and the demand for Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation continues on the streets.