New Delhi, Jan. 8 -- The Election Commission of India's (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has been mired in controversies from day one. There have been controversies about procedural overreach, lapses and alleged political conspiracies to disenfranchise voters. Some of the controversies are still being adjudicated upon in courts.

However, what is more surprising is the lack of organic traction from deleted voters. When Uttar Pradesh released its draft rolls after the enumeration phase of the SIR exercise on January 6 this asymmetry only became more stark. Among the 10 large states that have been subjected to the process, Uttar Pradesh tops the list in terms of proportion of deletions compared to the pre-SIR base by a distan...