EC plotting with BJP to delete 1 crore Muslim, PDA votes in UP SIR, will move court: Akhilesh Yadav

Claiming that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was facing the same situation in her state, the former chief minister said, “Some people are saying that an IAS officer posted in the chief minister’s office is exerting pressure on the divisional commissioners and the district magistrates to remove the names of PDA voters from the list.”

He will reveal the name of the officer later, he added.

The BJP, he claimed, was doing this in the Assembly constituencies where it lost in the 2022 Assembly elections. Nearly 1,200 votes of Muslim community were deleted from just one polling station in his Lok Sabha constituency Kannauj, the SP chief alleged.

Yadav demanded that all the forms 7 filed so far during the SIR should be rejected and a judicial inquiry should be initiated to probe the signatures on the ones already submitted.

Terming it a “do-or-die situation”, Yadav said the voters should understand that having their names in the electoral rolls is the evidence of citizenship.

“The names of Muslim and PDA voters from the polling booths across the state where the BJP is not winning are being removed in a targeted manner,” Yadav said.

On his party’s future course of action on the issue, he said, “The fight Mamata Banerjee ji is fighting in Bengal, she is also facing the same situation. We will also move the court. We will take every step.”

Responding to Yadav’s allegations, Union Minister and BJP state president Pankaj Chaudhary said, “Akhilesh Yadav had expressed happiness when reports came that nearly 2.88 crore names were deleted (from the draft electoral roll), saying around 75,000 votes of BJP were deleted from all every Assembly constituency. This is not an exercise undertaken by the BJP. This is being done by the Election Commission. He should complain to the EC if he has any issue.”

State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said, “Recently, some news reports suggested that Form 7, which bears a signature, was not actually submitted by the person whose name is on it. Therefore, all district election officers and electoral registration officers have been instructed to ensure that whenever a Form 7 is received, they must verify it was submitted by the person whose signature it bears.”