UP SIR manipulated due to pressure from BJP: Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged manipulation in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Uttar Pradesh electoral roll due to pressure from the ruling BJP and termed it a case of "vote theft".

The draft electoral roll for Uttar Pradesh was published on January 6, with 12.55 crore voters making it to the list and the names of 2.89 crore deleted, according to official data.

In a statement issued here, Yadav said the Election Commission (EC) conducted the SIR of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly voter list and the State Election Commission simultaneously conducted the exercise for panchayat elections.

In both exercises, the work was done by the same booth-level officers, he said.

"Surprisingly, after the assembly SIR, the total number of voters in the state dropped by 2.89 crore to 12.56 crore. On the other hand, after the panchayat SIR, the number of rural voters increased by 40 lakh to 12.69 crore," he added.

Questioning the EC, the SP chief said, "Tell us which of the two SIRs is correct, because both sets of figures cannot be right at the same time."

Under pressure from the BJP, Yadav claimed, the authorities failed to maintain the "equation" of vote manipulation, exposing the entire exercise.

"They forgot to balance the equation of vote theft and the truth has now been exposed," he said.

According to officials, the 2.89 crore voters, or 18.70 per cent, of the 15.44 crore listed earlier could not be included in the draft electoral list due to deaths, permanent migration or multiple registrations.

The final electoral list will be published on March 6.