Akhilesh questions ECI’s ‘credibility’, asks how BJP knew about voter deletions in advance

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday (January 10, 2026) questioned how the BJP leaders knew the number of voters going to be removed, and said that it raises question over the "credibility" of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Speaking to reporters in Lucknow, Mr. Yadav said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was conducted in Uttar Pradesh. Without objecting, all political parties, including their booth-level agents (BLAs), participated in the exercise.

After the release of the draft voter list on Tuesday (January 6, 2026), Mr. Yadav said, he was apprehensive about the removal of 3 crore votes.

However, even before the draft voter list was released, and no one knew how many votes would be removed, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that approximately four crore votes were going to be removed, Mr. Yadav said.

A former MP from Kannauj also said that three lakh votes had already been removed in one district, Mr. Yadav said. He added that there are two Assembly constituencies in different districts, and they will remove votes there as well.

If BJP leaders are making such statements, then the question arises over the credibility of the Election Commission, Mr. Yadav said.

The draft electoral roll for Uttar Pradesh was published on Tuesday after a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, with 2.89 crore voters excluded and 12.55 crore retained out of 15.44 crore listed earlier, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa had said.

The 2.89 crore voters, or 18.70%, could not be included in the draft list due to deaths, permanent migration or multiple registrations, Rinwa said, addressing a press conference here.

The final electoral list will be published on March 6 this year, Rinwa had said.

Mr. Yadav said that he hopes that when such a large-scale exercise like the voter registration drive is being conducted, the genuine voters will have their names added to the voter list.

Raising the question regarding the data provided by the BLOs (Booth Level Officers), Mr. Yadav said how the total number of rural voters in Panchayat, 12.69 crore, can be more than that of voters for the Assembly elections across the entire state, 12.56 crore, when the same BLOs are preparing the voter lists for both the elections.

He raised doubts regarding the removal of 2.88 crore voters from the draft Assembly voter list, while the addition of 40 lakh voters by the same BLOs for the Panchayat elections, he said.

The former Chief Minister said, "Is the final voter list for the Panchayat elections being delayed by 50 days to conceal this fact? When the same BLOs prepared both voter lists, why is the state data not being released? Why are they delaying it?"

"We can only demand this information from the Election Commission, because those in power have already given instructions to increase the number of votes by 200, and we have made our preparations accordingly," the SP chief said.