Nearly a month after Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the Election Commission had deliberately deleted names of around 20,000 voters from the Yadav and Muslim communities in almost 403 assembly constituencies upon the request of BJP, the poll body asked the UP leader to submit proof to substantiate his claim.
The statement alleging the EC of misdemeanor was made at the SP’s national convention on September 29. However, no formal complaint was lodged with the EC. The move by the election body comes after taking into account the “extremely serious” nature of the allegations leveled by Yadav who is touted as a seasoned politician of Uttar Pradesh.
Documents Sought From Yadav By EC
The election watchdog on Thursday asked Akhilesh Yadav to submit documents to validate his claim by November 10.
The EC communication also asked Yadav for assembly-wise data on the number of voter names deleted and names of the alleged wrongful deletions. Among other documents requested by the EC were supporting documents of such wrongful deletions and complaints filed by party officials with any election official during the summary revision of the electoral list or the 2022 assembly elections, ANI reported.
SOPs Leave No Scope for Mass Deletion, Says EC
While demanding the politician to present such proof, the EC also clarified that no complaints were filed by any SP leader concerning the deletion of 20,000 voters in any UP constituency after November 1, 2021, till the conclusion of the elections except one by the SP candidate from the Aliganj assembly segment in Etah district that alleged the deletion of 10,000 electors (from minority and scheduled caste).
On inquiry, however, it was revealed that the allegations were baseless and factually did not hold value.
Further, defending its stance, the electoral body reiterated that the SOPs laid down to leave no scope for mass deletion of names to this degree. There are specific safeguards built into the system to ensure that there was no indiscriminate deletion of voters, EC further noted.
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