Lucknow, Jan. 7 -- The publication of the draft electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in Uttar Pradesh revealed large-scale deletion of voters in the urban hubs of the state, including Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Kanpur Nagar, Agra, Prayagraj, Bareilly and Varanasi districts. The maximum deletion of voters was witnessed in the state capital Lucknow at 1.20 million (30.04%), followed by Ghaziabad at 818,000 (28.83%), Kanpur Nagar 902,000 (25.50%), Meerut 665,000 (24.65%), Prayagraj 1.16 million (24.64%), Gautam Buddha Nagar 447,000 (23.98%), Agra 836,000 (23.25%), Bareilly 714,000 (20.99%) and Varanasi 573,000 (18.18%). Officers associated with the SIR process said a large number of voters' names were deleted in urban hubs as many of them permanently shifted. In Lucknow, 13.41% voters enrolled in the 2025 voter list were marked as permanently shifted in the draft electoral rolls. The percentage of such voters in some other districts was: Ghaziabad 12.68%, Meerut 11.59%, Gautam Buddha Nagar 11.80%, Kanpur Nagar 11.07%, Prayagraj 10.42%, Agra 9.35%, Bareilly 8.58% and Varanasi 8.02% voters. During the enumeration phase, many voters with duplicate enrolments in both urban and rural areas chose to retain their rural identity. Officials attributed this trend to the benefits of rural welfare schemes, property ties, and the upcoming panchayat elections, which encouraged voters to maintain their village connection. The rural districts of Balrampur, Bahraich, and Siddharthnagar, which border Nepal, also recorded significant voter deletions. In Balrampur, 411,000 (25.98%) names were dropped from the draft electoral rolls, while Bahraich saw 541,000 (20.44%) deletions and Siddharthnagar reported 398,000 (20.33%) names removed. The draft voter list published after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) on Tuesday shows Prayagraj district currently has 3,536,555 voters, including 1,960,593 men, 1,575,635 women, and 327 transgender voters. When the SIR process began on October 27, 2025, the district had 4,692,860 voters, reflecting an increase of 1.36 million voters over 22 years since the last SIR exercise in 2003 when Prayagraj had 3,332,880 voters. However, between November 4, when the distribution of SIR forms began, and December 26, when process concluded, 1,156,305 voters were removed within just 53 days. The draft voter list for Meerut reveals that 665,647 voters' names have been removed. This brings the district's total number of voters down to 2.03 million (2,034,185). District election officer VK Singh said the draft publication of the SIR has been completed across all seven assembly constituencies. Constituency-wise data shows the highest number of deletions in Meerut South, where 154,739 voters were removed, followed by Meerut Cantonment with 149,000 deletions. Other constituencies include Siwalkhas (64,555), Sardhana (79,006), Hastinapur (64,550), Kithore (64,740), and Meerut Assembly constituency (89,057). A total of 836,943 voters' names were removed across the nine assembly constituencies of Agra district. The overall voter count declined from 3,600,071 to 2,763,128. The largest reduction was recorded in Agra Cantonment, the district's most populated constituency, where 180,882 names were deleted. Data released on Tuesday showed that out of a total of 3.60 million voters listed in Agra district before the SIR, 106,358 were found to be dead, 296,210 absent, 336,621 shifted, and 54,591 listed as duplicates. As many as 573,203 absentee, shifted and dead (ASD) voters were removed from the electoral rolls of Varanasi district during the SIR, officials said. Following the revision, the total number of voters in the district's eight assembly constituencies stands at 2,580,502, down from 3,153,705 voters recorded on October 27, 2025. Deputy district election officer Bipin Kumar said: "There were 3,153,705 voters in the eight assembly constituencies of Varanasi district on October 27, 2025. During the special intensive revision, 573,203 ASD voters were deleted. As of January 6, the electoral roll contains 2,580,502 voters," Kumar said in a press statement. He also shared constituency-wise details of the deletions. In Pindara, the voter count dropped to 322,835 from 375,261 after 52,426 ASD voters were deleted. The constituency has 17,536 voters with no mapping. In Ajgara (SC), 35,961 ASD voters were removed from the rolls, reducing the number of electors from 367,532 to 331,571. The constituency has 10,251 unmapped voters. In Shivpur, 51,963 ASD voters were deleted from a total of 393,968, bringing the revised voter count to 342,005. There are 16,718 voters with no mapping. In Rohania, 77,262 ASD voters were erased during the revision. The constituency now has 345,289 voters, down from 4,22,551, with 24,947 unmapped voters. Varanasi North saw deletion of 111,457 ASD voters, reducing number of electors from 448,685 to 337,228. The constituency has 26,850 voters with no mapping. In Varanasi South, 76,722 ASD voters were removed, bringing voter count down from 320,713 to 2,43,991. The constituency has 21,879 unmapped voters. Varanasi Cantonment recorded the highest number of deletions, with 112,384 ASD voters removed from 471,672 voters, leaving 359,288 on the rolls. The constituency has 33,981 unmapped voters. In Sewapuri, 55,028 ASD voters were deleted, reducing the number of electorate from 3,53,323 to 2,98,295. The constituency has 10,518 voters with no mapping....