Give proof on voter deletion allegation: Election Commission to Akhilesh Yadav

After he was reelected SP president, on September 29, Yadav reportedly alleged that at the ‘behest of BJP and its aides EC reduced votes of Yadavs and Muslims by almost 20,000, per assembly constituency and a probe would reveal many names were deleted.’

Taking suo motu cognisance, EC on Thursday asked Yadav to submit documentary evidence to support his allegation by November 10. EC’s letter said Representation of the People Act, 1951, has provisions for penalties and criminal liabilities for “undue interference, including false declaration knowingly and promoting enmity between classes.”

The EC letter to Yadav said that allegation of mass deletion of names of particular group of voters from the electoral roll was “extremely serious and have far reaching substantive and perceptional implications on the integrity of elections and thereby on democracy.” Such allegations made by the president of a state party and former chief minister deserved the highest attention of the poll panel, it said.

EC has sought from Yadav assembly constituency-wise data on number and names of wrongful deletions, supporting evidence/documents of such electors and details of specific complaint of deletions of voters of such magnitude “made by your party with either any of the district election officer or chief electoral officer, UP, during the process of the summary revision or the 2022 assembly elections.”

EC said that according to published data on additions and deletion of voters before assembly elections in UP, there were no deletions to the level of 20,000 voters even in one UP constituency.

No complaint of deletions was brought to EC’s attention during the entire process, between November 1, 2021, and May 1, 2022, except one by SP candidate Rameshwar Prasad Yadav in December 2021. The complaint alleged 10,000 electors were deleted from the voters’ list. It was probed by the state’s chief electoral officer and the allegations were found “baseless, unsubstantiated and factually incorrect,” the poll panel said in its letter to Yadav.