look news india
News India Live, Digital Desk: Whenever elections come closer, it is generally expected that names of new youth will be added to the voter list and the number of voters will increase. But the latest voter list of Uttar Pradesh (Voter List 2026) has surprised everyone. Especially in big cities like Noida, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Kanpur, where the population should have doubled every day in the name of development, the names of voters have reduced by thousands.
Now the question arises whether people are really becoming disillusioned with these shining cities? Or are its roots hidden somewhere deeper?
Are layoffs becoming the biggest reason?
For the last one and a half year, we have been continuously hearing news of ‘retrenchment’ i.e. lay-offs from tech companies and big corporate houses. The person who had taken a flat or shifted on rent in cities like Lucknow or Noida with high dreams, it became impossible for him to stay there as soon as he lost his job.
In fact, when sources of income are closed in big cities, the first blow falls on the house and its ration and water. There are a large number of people who, after losing their jobs, instead of moving to cities again, considered their villages or small towns (Reverse Migration) safe. Perhaps this is the reason why his name has been removed from the voter list due to ‘transfer’ or ‘change of residence’.
Is that ‘fear’ proving to be true?
Experts had often warned that if the job crisis continued like this in big cities, the infrastructure there would collapse. The voter list figures are pointing in this direction. The decrease in voters from ‘industrial hubs’ like Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar directly reflects the plight of the middle class.
Decrease in names in the voter list does not just mean that people do not want to vote; This simply means that they are no longer ‘urban’. The crowd which was once the strength of the cities, is now returning to its native places where life may not be expensive, but there is a roof to live on and one’s own farm.
What will be its impact on politics?
These figures are no less than a big alarm bell for political parties. The parties which considered urban voters as their ‘jagir’, will now have to change their agenda. If cities are becoming empty, it simply means that the public’s issues are no longer limited to just ‘roads and electricity’, but ‘permanent jobs and economic security’ are now going to be the biggest election issues.