LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office, on Tuesday, tendered an apology for the tone of its social media post responding to the criticism by AAP leader Sanjay Singh over the errors in the Legislative Council electoral roll, saying its language was inappropriate for an official account.
It may be recalled that a controversy was erupted after AAP leader Sanjay Singh raised questions over bizarre voter names, such as "Ram ne Yadav ko maara (Ram beat Yadav)", appearing in the electoral roll for the MLC polls in UP. the UP CEO office later clarified it calling it a translation error involving the name "Ramhit Yadav".
AAP RS MP Sanjay Singh also raised the issue on social media, questioning the entry and drawing attention to the apparent error. He had even alleged that a particular caste was chosen to be victimised.
In a post on X in Hindi, Singh had asked, "Gyanesh Kumar ji, why did Ram hit only a Yadav? Why did Ram not hit any Singh, Pathak, Asthana, Sharma, Rai or Bisht? Is your computer casteist? Are you running the agenda of any political party?".
In a post on X on Tuesday, the UP CEO office said that the language, tone and sharp nature of the comments in the earlier post were not in consonance with the communication expected from an official handle. The genuine anger expressed in the comments on the post was duly noted. “We sincerely apologise to those who were surprised and upset by this. From now on, our communication will be dignified and formal.”
Responding to the criticism, the UP CEO’s handle had posted: "The recent Legislative Council election voter list also contains a strange name: ‘Ram beat Sharma’. Computers/software are not casteist. We accept that a mistake was made, but fortunately, even while making the mistake, there was no caste discrimination. We should also thank God that Ram did not kill a member of a minority community. Otherwise, along with being accused of casteism, we would also have been accused of communalism."
As remarks drew further criticism, sources said the subsequent apology sought to address the backlash over the language used in the post.
After the errors were found in 158 of the 14.81 lakh entries in the electoral rolls for the biennial elections to five graduate and six teachers’ constituencies, CEO Navdeep Rinwa had demanded explanations from officials concerned. UP CEO had attributed the discrepancies to a combination of software-related errors and human negligence.
The CEO’s office said the divisional commissioners concerned serve as Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) for these electoral rolls, while the district magistrates of the respective districts function as Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs). An explanation was sought from those officials over the discrepancies.