ECI, BJP deleting PDA voters from electoral rolls using Form-7, alleges Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday accused the Election Commission of India of teaming up with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh to delete the names of PDA voters from the electoral roll through Form-7. According to the Election Commission, Form-7 is filled out to get the name of a voter deleted from the existing electoral roll.

Addressing a press conference here, Yadav said, “Voting is the biggest right in a democracy, and there should not be any fraud with it. But the ECI has teamed up with the BJP and made a plan to delete the names of the PDA voters from the electoral roll through Form-7 in Uttar Pradesh.” PDA is a political acronym coined by Yadav to represent a coalition of backward classes (Pichhda), Dalits, and minorities (Alpsankhyak). “Some people are of the view that an IAS officer posted in the chief minister’s office is exerting pressure on the divisional commissioners and district magistrates to cut the names of the PDA voters from the list. “Some are saying that the IAS officer must be acting on the chief minister’s orders. The Election Commission should just put up the BJP’s flag on its building,” Yadav said, sharpening his attack on the poll panel.  He also claimed that after its poor performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is preparing to split the votes of the Samajwadi Party, Muslims, and the PDA community through targeted Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

In Kannauj, the Lok Sabha constituency he represents, the names of 1,200 Muslim voters have been removed from the electoral roll at a polling centre, Yadav claimed, adding: “The ECI’s credibility is in question.”

Posing a query to the chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh, Yadav said, “Will he tell on whose side is he in this ‘milibhagat’ (connivance)?” The former chief minister also claimed that there is disappointment among the booth-level officers (BLOs) after the name of a BLO was reportedly removed from the voter list. “Are we moving towards ‘one nation, one election’, or is there a bigger conspiracy,” Yadav asked.

Citing some printed forms, Yadav said when a poor man goes to the election officials and inquiries about his name in the voter list after coming to know that it has been deleted, he is shown the voter list of the State Election Commission, and told that his name is still there.

“The person does not know which voter list is more important, that of the Assembly or the village pradhan,” Yadav claimed. Citing sources in Sitapur, Yadav claimed that preparations are being made to commit fraud by submitting printed Form-7 of Muslim voters. “When the Samajwadi leaders and workers reached out to the complainant, they found that he was a poor labourer who did not know how to sign, and used his thumb impression instead. “Now you can imagine how printed Form-7s are reaching the villages. And this fraud is going on in the entire state, from Ghaziabad to Ghazipur,” Yadav claimed.

He also claimed that the BJP is making such preparations in the Assembly constituencies it lost in 2022.

“The EC should make alternate arrangements to verify the downloaded forms, which must be numbered and carry the poll panel’s hologram. All Form-7s submitted till now should be rejected, and every signature must be verified.

The EC should use artificial intelligence to catch the fraudsters,” Yadav said, adding that his party has already submitted a written complaint to the poll panel in this regard.

Attacking the BJP, the Samajwadi chief said, “These power-hungry individuals will form a government of their own and dismantle the Constitution that protects us like a shield. Saving your vote means saving your Constitution and your right to reservations and jobs.  “Therefore, we, the PDA, directly appeal to every member of society — save your vote, save your future.”

He also said that the PDA ‘praharis’ (guards) must conduct thorough checks at every polling booth.

“Not a single vote should be removed, not a single vote should be cut,” Yadav said.