SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav Targets BJP, Election Commission Over SIR & Alleged Voter Deletions In Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav, president of the Samajwadi Party (SP), launched a scathing attack on the BJP and the Election Commission of India (EC) on Friday, alleging attempts to manipulate voter rolls ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections. Addressing a press conference, Yadav questioned the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, stating that opposition parties had raised serious concerns but the EC had failed to provide satisfactory answers.

Yadav accused the BJP of attempting to influence the electoral process in Uttar Pradesh, despite his claim that they would face defeat in the state. He specifically referenced West Bengal, alleging that voter names were deleted from the rolls and central security forces were deployed to sway the election outcome.

Yadav also pointed to former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's legal intervention, claiming that affected citizens were entitled to vote. He accused the BJP of using Form 7, which is intended for deleting names from electoral rolls, to target specific voters. Yadav credited SP workers for identifying and halting what he termed fraudulent attempts to remove names through this process.

He questioned Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's assertion that 1.27 crore Hindu voters had been deleted, asking how the Chief Minister obtained such information and suggesting that the EC might have shared electoral data with him or his office.

Yadav referenced the Chief Minister's appeal to BJP workers, made during Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit, to ensure two crore names were added to the voter rolls. He argued that these figures indicated a potential shortfall of approximately 31,000 votes per Assembly constituency.