‘From 4 cr to 3 cr deletions’, SP says 1 cr names ‘hastily added’, EC rejects charge

Even before the publication of the draft electoral roll, about 16 lakh forms 6 were received for addition while 49,000 forms 7 were received for deletion, the EC said.

A day after the Election Commission (EC) released the draft electoral roll following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Uttar Pradesh, the Opposition parties on Wednesday targeted the government over the process, calling it a “hasty exercise” which is leading to a “large-scale omission” of voters.

The State Election Commission, however, refuted the allegations, especially levelled by the Samajwadi Party (SP), maintaining that their booth-level agents (BLAs) were properly informed about the “uncountable” forms and that they had requested for the extension of the exercise.

In a cryptic post on X, Samajwadi Party president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav wrote, “Where have the people gone?”

But on its official handle, the party’s media cell sought an explanation from EC as to where did 1 crore voters come from, saying Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself admitted publicly that nearly 4 crore voters were missing.

It wrote, “The Chief Minister had previously stated that 4 crore names are being removed after which the Election Commission became active. Approximately 1 crore names were hastily added. Will ECI.. CEO UP.. explain where these 1 crore names suddenly came from to be added after the Chief Minister’s statement? Or was there dishonesty before, or dishonesty after.. or is dishonesty being done selectively.”

“When the matter reaches the court, answering will prove to be very burdensome,” it added in the post.

Talking to mediapersons, Congress state president Ajay Rai said, “The deletion of nearly 3 crore voters is a result of a hasty exercise carried out in such a large state. Time given for Uttar Pradesh was almost the same as that to many states irrespective of their size and scale. It is a conspiracy to weaken UP by reducing the number of voters here. Such a large number of deletions are also a disrespect to the people of the state.”

Responding to the allegations, the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) wrote on official social media handle, “In a state-level meeting held with political parties in the second week of November, the Samajwadi Party and other political parties had demanded from the CEO to request the Election Commission of India to extend the period by two weeks… In the additional 15 days period, lists of such voters, whose names were being deleted were provided to the booth-level agents of political parties. During this period, 8-9 lakh people were added to the draft voter list. Neither any dishonesty was happening in the past.. nor is it happening now.”

Meanwhile, as the revision, correction, claims exercise started on Wednesday after the draft list was announced, the EC said of a total of 128 claims and objections on the first day, maximum applications were received from the BJP (103), followed by Bahujan Samaj Party (17) and Samajwadi Party (6).