The final electoral roll for Uttarakhand, released on Saturday following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), lists approximately 71.58 lakh voters — a drop of nearly 8 lakh from the count at the start of the revision exercise.
The release marks the formal conclusion of the SIR process in the hill state, and has already become a fresh point of contention between the Election Commission machinery and the Opposition. The Congress has questioned the scale of the deletions, putting forward a far higher estimate than the state's chief electoral officer.
What the numbers say
According to the office of Uttarakhand's Chief Electoral Officer, the electoral roll had 79.6 lakh voters when the SIR began on June 8. After the distribution and compilation of enumeration forms, the draft roll published on July 14 contained approximately 71.33 lakh voters, and the final roll has settled at roughly 71.58 lakh.
The Congress, the main opposition party in the state, claims the decline is far steeper. Former MLA Manoj Rawat said the number of voters stood at 85.19 lakh as of January 1, 2025, and has now come down to 71.58 lakh — a reduction of nearly 14 lakh.
The gap between the two counts — the official figure at the start of SIR and the Congress's pre-revision benchmark — points to a continuing dispute over how the baseline itself is defined.
Why it matters
The SIR exercise has been politically charged across the country, with the Opposition alleging that large-scale deletions could disenfranchise legitimate voters. Saturday's release gives the debate in Uttarakhand its first concrete final numbers, and the divergence between the official and Congress figures is likely to keep the argument alive as other states release their own final rolls.
Sources:
News9Live: Breaking News Live Updates, October 04, 2026 — Uttarakhand voter count falls by over 8 lakh after SIR; final roll has 71.58 lakh electors
The release marks the formal conclusion of the SIR process in the hill state, and has already become a fresh point of contention between the Election Commission machinery and the Opposition. The Congress has questioned the scale of the deletions, putting forward a far higher estimate than the state's chief electoral officer.
What the numbers say
According to the office of Uttarakhand's Chief Electoral Officer, the electoral roll had 79.6 lakh voters when the SIR began on June 8. After the distribution and compilation of enumeration forms, the draft roll published on July 14 contained approximately 71.33 lakh voters, and the final roll has settled at roughly 71.58 lakh.
The Congress, the main opposition party in the state, claims the decline is far steeper. Former MLA Manoj Rawat said the number of voters stood at 85.19 lakh as of January 1, 2025, and has now come down to 71.58 lakh — a reduction of nearly 14 lakh.
The gap between the two counts — the official figure at the start of SIR and the Congress's pre-revision benchmark — points to a continuing dispute over how the baseline itself is defined.
Why it matters
The SIR exercise has been politically charged across the country, with the Opposition alleging that large-scale deletions could disenfranchise legitimate voters. Saturday's release gives the debate in Uttarakhand its first concrete final numbers, and the divergence between the official and Congress figures is likely to keep the argument alive as other states release their own final rolls.
Sources:
News9Live: Breaking News Live Updates, October 04, 2026 — Uttarakhand voter count falls by over 8 lakh after SIR; final roll has 71.58 lakh electors
