Akhilesh alleges mass deletion of SP supporters' names in SIR, seeks EC's intervention

Lucknow: Alleging large-scale irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday demanded action against those responsible and sought greater transparency in the process.

Addressing a press conference at the party office here, Yadav said the SP would seek time from the Election Commission and submit a memorandum on Tuesday, urging it to clarify under which rules FIRs should be registered and action taken if anyone is found guilty of wrongdoing.

Questioning why the poll panel had not acted so far, Yadav asserted that after meeting the Commission, the party would also raise the issue in the Assembly.

The former UP chief minister demanded that the process of deleting names through Form 7 should be initiated only by the booth level officer (BLO) and not from any other source. He also sought that details, including the Assembly constituency, booth number and the person who submitted Form 7, be made public.

The SP chief also alleged that names of party supporters were being deleted through fraudulent means and that the Election Commission had provided them with "very little" information.

He claimed that in Sakaldiha, 16 voters' names were deleted after alleged forged signatures were submitted in the name of an SP MLA. An analysis of those voters would show they belonged to the PDA (backwards, Dalit and minority) communities, he alleged.

Claiming that at booth no 365 in the Babaganj Assembly constituency, nearly 100 votes were deleted through forged signatures, Yadav read out the names of several voters, their booth numbers and details of the Form 7 applications allegedly used to remove them.

The SP chief said the party had been presenting data for several days regarding wrongful deletions, but no action had been taken so far.

He also cited the case of a man named Nandlal, alleging that, though the man used a thumb impression, signatures were obtained from him by BJP workers for filing Form 7. Yadav questioned whether any action had been taken against officials concerned in the district.

Alleging similar instances elsewhere, Yadav claimed that in Bhojipura, even a booth-level agent of the SP had his vote deleted.

He further alleged that a "secret meeting" of the Bharatiya Janata Party had decided to target constituencies won by the SP and have voters' names deleted there, a plan he claimed was being implemented at the Assembly and booth levels.

He alleged that an unnamed BJP leader had claimed that 3 lakh votes were deleted in Kannauj and that more were to be removed in other districts.

Yadav also alleged that in Ballia's Sikandarpur Assembly constituency, represented by SP MLA Mohammad Ziauddin Rizvi, the MLA's wife's vote had been deleted.

He accused the BJP of trying to divert attention from issues such as inflation, unemployment, farmers' problems, law and order, trade agreements, the weakening rupee, rising gold and silver prices, and lack of actual investment in the state despite claims of Rs 50 lakh crore worth of Memoranda of Understanding.

Citing figures related to Form 7, Yadav said that while the SP had filed only 47 such forms in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had filed 1,729 and "unknown persons" had filed 1,28,659 forms.

Yadav alleged that these "unknown persons" were linked to the BJP and that the use of such names was intended to avoid accountability.

He added that voters should not be harassed in the name of "logical discrepancies".

"A person working in the city does not have the time to explain why there is a 40-year age gap between his grandparents or whether it is a digital error. If all documents have been submitted, the government must explain why such deficiencies are arising," he said.

Yadav noted that there could be minor variations in the figures cited by him as the official data was changing and increasing daily.

Asked by a reporter if he suspected the EC was working under BJP pressure, Yadav said, "The EC should put up the BJP's flag in its office." To another query, Akhilesh remarked, "They (BJP) only want to win elections, they want to end democracy. They want to obliterate BR Ambedkar and others who sacrificed their lives for this country because they did not sing Vande Mataram before Independence, and took so long before they could sing it after Independence." Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Yadav said, "Bisht ji should ask his friends, when did they sing Vande Mataram!"