LUCKNOW: A detailed analysis of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 voter data reveals that several urban constituencies represented by senior leaders and ministers have witnessed voter deletions that overshoot their winning margins of the 2022 assembly elections.A similar pattern is visible across multiple constituencies irrespective of the candidates’ party affiliation.The SIR data of electoral rolls throws up contrasts between voter deletions and the political strength of key leaders across Uttar Pradesh.Leader of opposition and Samajwadi Party MLA from Itwa, Mata Prasad Pandey, won the seat in 2022 by a narrow margin of 1,662 votes.However, the SIR data shows that 40,893 (12%) voters have been deleted in his constituency.SP’s Shivpal Singh Yadav, six-time MLA from Jaswantnagar, stands in stark contrast in a seat that has remained a Yadav family bastion since 1996.Shivpal’s 2022 winning margin of 90,979 votes has been nearly double the voter deletions of 47,194 recorded during SIR.In urban constituencies, however, the gap between deletions and margins appears more politically sensitive.Ravidas Mehrotra’s Lucknow Central seat recorded a staggering 1.07 lakh deletions, accounting for 28.88% of the electorate, nearly 10 times his winning margin of 10,935 votes.Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak’s Lucknow Cantonment seat witnessed the highest deletion rate in the state at 34.18%, translating to over 1.24 lakh voters removed from rolls, far exceeding his victory margin of 39,512. In 2017, he contested from Lucknow Central seat.The trend is equally visible in other high-profile contests. Pallavi Patel’s victory over deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in Sirathu by 7,337 votes contrasts sharply with 53,048 voter deletions recorded in the constituency.In Shahjahanpur, finance minister Suresh Kumar Khanna’s margin of 9,313 votes is dwarfed by over 1.06 lakh deletions, more than 11 times his victory margin.Among BJP allies, Apna Dal (Sonelal) Jay Kumar Singh Jaiki of Bindki — previously an MLA from Jahanabad — won by just 3,797 votes, while over 27,000 names were deleted (seven times higher) from the rolls.Nishad Party’s Rishi Tripathi from Nautanwa had a victory margin of 15,331 votes against 47,161 deletions, roughly three times his victory gap.Similarly, RLD leader and cabinet minister Anil Kumar from Purqazi (SC) won by 6,532 votes against voter deletions of more than 31,000, again highlighting the disproportion in margins and deletions.Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief and cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar offers another example of mass leadership mitigating risk.His 45,632-vote win in Zahoorabad exceeded voter deletions of 39,447. His party colleague Abbas Ansari, son of the late gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, won Mau with a margin of 38,116 votes, though deletions stood higher at 53,826, introducing an element of uncertainty.Chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s Gorakhpur Urban seat stands out as a relatively secure example, where his 1.03 lakh vote margin remains well above the 33,094 voter deletions recorded.Meanwhile, urban seats like Allahabad South, represented by cabinet minister Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, also show high deletion figures approaching one lakh.Beyond the Samajwadi Party and BJP, similar patterns emerge among other political parties. In the BSP, Umashankar Singh won the Rasra seat with a margin of 6,583 votes, while voter deletions stood at 36,874, over five times the victory margin.For Congress, Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ secured Rampur Khas by 14,741 votes, but the constituency saw 39,548 deletions, nearly three times her margin.Jansatta Dal Loktantrik’s Raghuraj Pratap Singh, popularly known as Raja Bhaiya, recorded a relatively stronger position in Kunda with a margin of 30,315 votes against 53,539 deletions, indicating a closer ratio compared to other seats.
