U.P. BJP tries to shore up women voter numbers with SIR leaving wide gender gap

Elections for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly are due in early 2027, and among the preparations by the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the enrolment of women voters left out by the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State, a task that’s a major priority, party office-bearers said.

Also read | Nearly 6 crore names have been deleted in first year of SIR of electoral rolls

While the State Election Commission, in its final draft of the electoral rolls following the SIR, showed that some attempts had been made to make up for the deletions, in many districts, women who had married into districts other than their own still found that they had not been added to either their native district or that of their in-laws, a senior office-bearer of the party in Uttar Pradesh told The Hindu.

“The first order of business for us is to make sure that women voters who have been left out of the electoral rolls despite the revisions get the opportunity to fill out Form 6 [the application form for new voters] and vote in the Assembly election. We found that there was a significant drop in the number of women voters even after the two drafts [of the electoral rolls],” the source said.

According to a press release put out by the State Election Commission upon the publication of the final draft of the electoral rolls, U.P. had a total of 13,39,84,792 voters, with 7,30,71,061 (54.54%) male voters and a much lower 6,09,09,525 (45.46%) women voters. The ratio of women to every 1,000 males is a low 834, the press release said.

While a district-wise break up is not available with The Hindu, the BJP office-bearer said that the issue was particularly acute in districts bordering Bihar and Nepal because of the change in residence of married women.

Across the country, according to data made available by the State Election Commissions, it has been found that the number of women voters declined after the SIR was conducted, barring Tamil Nadu, an outlier in this regard.

The shrinking of a loyal voter base is worrying for the party. Over the past few election cycles, the BJP has secured large-scale support from women voters, cutting across community lines, for law and order and income support schemes, including the Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana in Madhya Pradesh and the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana in Maharashtra.

According to the State Election Commission, the BJP had the largest number of 1,61,581 booth-level agents in the field during the Uttar Pradesh SIR. Some of this personnel are now being deployed to make sure that women voters are not left out of the final draft because of confusion over a shift in their residence, or other factors, and are included in the voters’ list before the Assembly election in U.P.