LUCKNOW: Following Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's complaint over irregularities in electoral rolls in various districts of Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission of India (ECI) directed district magistrates to scrutinise voter lists to determine if wrongful deletions had occurred, as alleged.
The district magistrates of Kasganj, Jaunpur, Barabanki, and Lucknow completed their probe and, in posts on microblogging platform X, dismissed Yadav’s claims as baseless and misleading. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, during a press conference, had stated that the commission had not received any affidavits from Uttar Pradesh or from Akhilesh Yadav.
Replying to the CEC’s statement, the SP chief, while distributing copies of affidavits to media persons in the Parliament complex, said that the affidavits were filed with ECI alleging large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in Uttar Pradesh during the 2022 assembly polls. He claimed that nearly 18,000 affidavits had been prepared and submitted within the deadline given to him after he received a notice from the poll body.
The affidavits, according to Yadav, were related to anomalies in assembly segments such as Amapur, Bakshi Ka Talab, Jaunpur Sadar and Kursi. He also claimed that those documented cases of voter deletions, which, he alleged, were carried out in a targeted manner against certain communities.
"Communities like Maurya, Pal, Bhagel and Rathore have seen voter deletions aimed at weakening their political impact. In some seats, we lost by narrow margins, and these deletions played a direct role," claimed the SP chief.
Meanwhile, replying to the SP chief's allegation, the Lucknow district magistrate (DM), in a post on X, said a complaint was received regarding the wrongful deletion of the names of 13 voters from the voter list in the 169-Bakshi Ka Talab assembly constituency of Lucknow district. The Lucknow DM claimed that the investigation revealed that the name of one voter was lawfully removed in 2012 due to a location change, as the voter had not been residing in the area anymore.
Referring to a separate complaint about the removal of the name of a woman from the voter list, the Lucknow DM said that due to her death, her name was duly removed from the list. The names of the remaining voters were present in the voter list, he added.
In a post, Barabanki DM said that the affidavits from two voters of the Kursi assembly constituency number 266 in Barabanki district were received regarding the erroneous deletion of their names from the voter list. The investigation found that the names of both the voters were present in the voter list.
The Kasganj DM, in his post on X, said, "A complaint, received via email regarding the incorrect deletion of the names of eight voters under the Amanpur assembly constituency number 101 of Kasganj district, the probe revealed that the names of seven voters were listed twice in the voter list and one name was deleted as per the rules."
Similarly, in another post, the Jaunpur DM, calling the complaint completely baseless and misleading, said, "A complaint received via email regarding the erroneous deletion of the names of five voters under the Jaunpur assembly constituency 366 in Jaunpur district, all five voters referred to in the complaint had passed away before 2022. This was confirmed by the family members of the deceased voters, local residents, and the local councillor. The names of the deceased have been duly removed as per the rules."
On Thursday, Akhilesh tweeted again, asking why "of the 18,000 affidavits" submitted by his party, only 14 were addressed with "half-baked and baseless" clarifications. Even after manipulating everything — from the Election Commission to district magistrates, from circle officers to lekhpals — the BJP-Election Commission-DM trio has managed to give clarifications on just 14 affidavits.”