Akhilesh Yadav flags discrepancies in SIR

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said how the BJP leaders knew the number of voters going to be removed, raising a question of “credibility” of the Election Commission of India. Speaking to the media in Lucknow on Saturday, 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, 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, Yadav said. A former MP from Kannauj also said that three lakh votes had already been removed in one district, 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, 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 per cent, 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.

Yadav said that we hope 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.