Dharmendra Bhardwaj launches voter camps at all 342 Meerut booths after roll deletions

MLC Dharmendra Kumar Bhardwaj is starting free “Right to Vote” camps at all 342 booths in Meerut City in September 2026, after 61,728 names were deleted from the constituency’s electoral roll. The camps will help residents check rolls, file Forms 6, 7 and 8, and escalate unresolved cases ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

Why it matters: - Meerut City voters now have a booth-level process to check whether their names survived a major electoral-roll revision. - The campaign targets a constituency where 61,728 names were deleted from the roll, a change that could leave eligible voters off the list on polling day. - The camps are designed to help residents correct errors before the final roll is published ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

What happened: - MLC Dharmendra Kumar Bhardwaj announced “Right to Vote,” a free voter-service programme at all 342 booths in Assembly Constituency 48. - The camps will open in the first week of September 2026 and continue through the Summary Special Revision window. - The stated goal is to prevent eligible Meerut City voters from discovering on election day that their names are missing. - The announcement came days after the district’s draft polling-station list was published.

The details: - Meerut City’s pre-revision roll stood at 3,16,966 electors and fell to 2,55,238 after the Special Intensive Revision, a net deletion of 61,728 names. - District-wide, the roll dropped from 26,99,820 to 21,93,637, a net deletion of 5,06,183 names. - Draft-phase deletions reached 89,057 in AC-48 and 6,65,647 across the district. - The surviving AC-48 roll includes 1,38,596 men, 1,16,627 women and 15 others. - AC-48 is a fully urban constituency, which makes booth-level voter checks especially important. - The camps will offer help with roll checks, Form 6 for new registration, Form 8 for corrections and Form 7 objections. - Volunteers will also explain acceptable documents, help residents obtain missing paperwork and file written escalations to the Booth Level Officer and Electoral Registration Officer. - Citizens will receive stamped acknowledgements for unresolved cases. - Each camp is built around six desks: a roll-check desk, Form 6 desk, Form 8 desk, Form 7 desk, escalation desk and helpline and portal guidance desk. - The programme says camps will not include party material, data hoarding or verbal-only assurances. - The camps will also teach residents how to use Voter Helpline 1950, the voters’ portal and Election Commission apps on their own. - The campaign is recruiting civic volunteers, with one lead per booth and five to ten assistants, drawn from colleges, coaching institutes, professional networks, traders’ associations, neighbourhood committees and self-help groups. - Camp venues such as schools, community centres, community halls and public halls will be published booth-wise. - The first phase will prioritize old-city areas and the wards where June 2026 door-to-door contact already took place, including Phoolbagh, Nehru Nagar, Preet Vihar and Mangal Pandey Nagar. - The constituency map assigns booth ranges to localities including Makbara Abbu, Nehru Nagar, Phoolbagh, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad Nagar, Sarai Bahleem, Siddique Nagar, Brahmpuri, Indira Nagar, Lakhipura and New Islamnagar.

Between the lines: - The launch reflects concern that administrative roll revisions can quietly remove eligible voters unless people check their status before the claims-and-objections deadline. - Bhardwaj framed the effort as civic service rather than partisan activity, saying the camps are meant to restore voices, not ask how people will vote. - The programme also appears shaped by past roll problems in Meerut, including a December 2024 investigation that found 336 fake voter entries across two booths. - That episode led to the deletion of 61,365 names across Meerut in the 2024 revision. - The campaign positions clean rolls as a shared interest for voters, parties and election officials. - The programme says many deletions happen for administrative reasons, including address changes, spelling mismatches, missed verification and migration. - An estimated fifth of the district’s working-age population works or commutes outside Meerut, according to the programme’s disclosure.

What's next: - First-phase camps will begin in the first week of September 2026 across all booth clusters. - The Summary Special Revision window is already under way and will be the main period for filing claims and objections. - Re-verification days will follow draft publication so filed cases can be checked again before the final roll. - Polling is expected in February-March 2027, making the current revision window the last full chance to fix roll errors before voting. - The programme is asking the district election officer, the Election Commission of India, the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, Meerut Nagar Nigam and local groups to support booth-level operations and venue access.

The bottom line: - Meerut voters are getting a ground-level correction drive at every booth after a large roll purge, and the outcome could decide how many eligible residents can vote in 2027.