LUCKNOW, Jan. 10 -- Amid concerns over Lucknow emerging as the only district in Uttar Pradesh with an over 30% drop in names when the draft electoral rolls were published under the Special Intensive Revision, twin factors have emerged as the reason for the dip. According to the minute data accessed by HT, the transferable jobs of government employees and a number of voters preferring their rural or native entity by choosing to have their names retained in their villages are the two most prominent reasons for the decline in numbers. What is more, in the 23 years since the last SIR exercise in 2003, names were often added to the voter list but seldom deleted, a situation that appears to have been corrected now. Take the case of the Lucknow Cantt assembly constituency, which witnessed the steepest decline of 39.11% where 298,231 voters submitted enumeration forms by December 26, 2025 against 359,016 total voters. This constituency has the Central Command headquarters where a large number of defence personnel serve and reside. With transferable jobs, their stay usually does not extend beyond four-five years during which they enrol as voters here. Later, when they left Lucknow, their names were not deleted in the past. Lucknow Cantt Vidhan Sabha constituency also has a large number of railway employees with transferable jobs. "Primarily being a Cantonment area, the armed forces and their battalions account for a floating population. A large number of battalions of armed personnel come here as a part of their posting (duty). In their four to five years' stay in the Cantonment area, their names get added to the voter list. It was found that when they leave Lucknow for their next posting, their names do not get struck off the voter list. During SIR, the names of those not posted in Lucknow were deleted," said additional district magistrate (administration) Shubhi Singh. "Lucknow Cantonment (Vidhan Sabha) also houses several railway colonies for the railway employees. Like the armed forces, many of the railway employees are posted here in big numbers. They live with their families in bungalows and quarters. After a few years of service, they too are transferred to other places. Another group of officers comes here as their replacement. But names of the previous central government employees were not deleted from the list. In this SIR, all such names of transferred railway employees were removed," another official said. Over a period of time, quite a few railway colonies that were in a dilapidated state were demolished in this assembly constituency - Running Shed Colony, Munawwar railway colony, and a few at Sewa Gram railway colony. This also accounted for the deletion of names. The constituency also has several government colonies like Dilkusha and Gulistan Colony where officers, many with transferable jobs, live. Once their names are added to the voter list, they are not removed. This factor is one of the reasons for the steepest decline of voters in the Lucknow Cantonment assembly constituency. The Lucknow Central assembly constituency also has a sizeable number of government employees with transferable jobs. In posh areas of the city, people who continue to have stakes in their native villages prefer to retain their native identity. Duplication was found to be a major issue in the remaining assembly seats like Lucknow North (which witnessed a 38.39% drop), Lucknow East (36.77%), Lucknow Central (34.61%), Sarojini Nagar (31.42%) and Lucknow West (30.25%). People with roots in Gonda, Basti and several other districts in Lucknow got themselves registered in the voter list in the state capital over a period of time. During the current SIR, they chose to remove themselves from the urban voter list, which was their temporary address and opted to vote in their original assembly constituencies. In Mohanlalganj, 298,231 voters submitted their forms against 359,016, registering the lowest drop at 16.93%. This assembly constituency comprises rural pockets of Lucknow, which do not have many high-rise buildings where people would stay on rent. Most of the homes are owned by individuals who live there. Hence, there were fewer movements of voters. The situation was not very different in two other largely rural constituencies. In Malihabad, 304,471 voters submitted their enumeration forms by December 26, 2025, compared to 368,641 voters listed in the electoral rolls on October 27, 2025, marking a decline of 17.41%. Likewise, in Bakshi Ka Talab, 384,852 voters submitted enumeration forms compared to 495,123 listed on October 27, 2025, reflecting a decline of 22.27%. Reacting to the SIR draft list released on January 6, Samajwadi Party chief spokesperson and former minister Rajendra Chaudhary said that there was a question mark on the impartiality of the SIR process. "There is a big question mark on the impartiality of the SIR. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has said many times that every voter has the right to vote but the BJP wants to manipulate the list by removing the names of those voters who vote against them. The result of it is the SIR list. EC will have to decide on the impartiality of the process. They have complicated things. Now, people will get notice and fill Form 6 which is a lengthy process. Our PDA Praharis have done a commendable job, they will continue their work at the booth level till the elections," he added. BJP state spokesperson Hero Bajpai, said, "The Election Commission has removed missing names from the voters' list. This shows that the entire exercise was carried out in a fair manner."...