It is not only the Opposition which is protesting against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and seeking its revocation; even UP CM Yogi Adityanath has raised the issue of the alleged deletion of 1.27 crore Hindu names from the voters’ list in UP.
On CM Yogi’s initiative, the BJP is reported to have reached out to the Election Commission of India (ECI), claiming that while the number of Muslim voters increased by 1.65 per cent in the state, 1.27 crore Hindus have been excluded from the voters’ list.
CM Yogi said the BJP had appealed to the poll body to include those who were left out despite there being evidence of them being voters, and asked how the names of those Hindu voters had gone missing and who was behind it.
Speaking to a Hindi news channel in Ayodhya during Deepotsav, the UP CM lashed out at the Opposition over “false propaganda” on SIR, claiming that SP president Akhilesh Yadav would no longer oppose the SIR or demand its rollback as the number of Muslim voters had increased.
“Ask Akhilesh Yadav to demand the rollback of SIR now. He will not do so because the number of Muslim voters has increased by 1.65% in UP after SIR. And I have spoken about the situation of Hindu voters,” Yogi said.
“That is why we have given our memorandum to the Election Commission, asking why this happened,” the CM said, adding, “I am speaking about those 1.27 crore Hindu voters who have their names in the electoral list of UP panchayat polls, but their names do not exist in the voters’ list of ECI.”
“How did it happen? Who was behind this? There are 66 lakh such voters; 55 lakh are those Hindu voters who are getting benefits of the government’s welfare schemes, but their names are missing from electoral rolls; and 4.5 lakh voters from the 18-19 age group are missing from the electoral rolls,” the CM added.
Meanwhile, taking to X, Akhilesh Yadav made three demands regarding the elections.
“Aadhaar card should be linked with voting; metal cards should be provided instead of paper- or plastic-made cards (EPIC) so that fake cards are not made; fingerprints or eye biometrics should be used for identification. Then BJP will not be able to get bogus voting done.”
Even senior SP leader Udaiveer Singh asked Yogi to back the impeachment motion to remove the CEC if he had any genuine grievance related to SIR.
However, UP Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said he would reply to all queries related to the SIR on November 17, after the draft roll of the special summary revision was released.
