The Election Commission on India (ECI) on Thursday shot off a letter to Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, demanding that he submit proof to substantiate allegations on the “mass deletion” of Muslim and Yadav voters from the electoral rolls by the Commission during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Following his election to the post of SP president for a third consecutive term in Lucknow on September 29, Mr. Yadav had alleged, and attributed the BJP’s victory to in the Assembly elections, to the ECI having “deliberately deleted” the names of an estimated 20,000 voters from the Muslim and Yadav communities across the 403 Assembly constituencies of the State at the behest of the BJP and its political allies.
Terming the allegation “extremely serious” and possessing the potential to have far-reaching and substantive implications, including that of perception, on the “integrity of elections” and, by extension, democracy per se, the ECI has given Mr. Yadav a fortnight to submit documentary proof on the basis of which he had chosen to voice the allegation in public.
According to sources in the ECI, the Commission had taken cognisance of Mr. Yadav’s statement considering his stature as “a seasoned politician” who had long been involved in electoral processes as the head of a State-recognised political party and a former Chief Minister of India’s largest State.
“The ECI has asked Mr. Yadav to furnish details to the Commission by November 10, 2022, so that necessary action can be taken. The law doesn’t provide for electoral rolls based on caste or religion,” a source said.
“Mr. Yadav has been asked to submit Assembly-wise data of deletions of such magnitude and has been requested to provide proof, such as the assembly Constituency-wise number and the names of alleged wrongful deletions, and supporting evidence or documents of such electors, whose names have allegedly been deleted wrongfully,” the source added.
The ECI, according to the source, had neither received any complaint of mass deletions from any Assembly constituency nor had any such an issue been brought to the notice of district or State-level electoral authorities either during or after the elections.
Only one complaint regarding the deletion of a list of around 10,000 electors from minority and Scheduled Caste communities, the source added, had been made to a District Election Officer (DEO) by an SP candidate from the Aliganj Assembly Constituency which was, however, found to be “baseless, unsubstantiated and factually incorrect” after an inquiry.
“Given the legal provisions for preparation of Electoral Roll and safeguards against wrongful deletions, the Standard Operating Procedures laid by the Commission leave no scope for mass deletion of the names of bona fide electors from the Electoral Roll,” the source said.
Besides, the source said, safeguards in this regard included a prohibition on suo motu deletions from the Electoral Rolls during an election year, each and every deletion being executed after due procedure and giving ample opportunity to the person concerned as provided in Section 22 of the Representation of People Act, 1950 and Rule 21-A of Registration of Electors Rules 1960, among others.
At each stage of the revision of the Electoral Roll, the source added, “complete transparency” was maintained by sharing a copy of the draft and final Electoral Roll, and the list of claims and objections which were also put in the public domain in addition to recognised political parties being provided copies of these.
“Sharing of data at each stage of revision of Electoral Rolls and at each level, that is, DEOs at the district level and CEO (Chief Election officer) at the State level, was done with every recognised political party, including Samajwadi Party, being a State-recognised party, during the elections,” the source added.
