Only 23,935 names deleted via Form 7: UP CEO junks SP’s mass deletion charge

On Monday, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav had alleged that names of his party supporters were being deleted through fraudulent means and that the Election Commission provided them with “very little” information. Seeking transparency in the SIR process, the former chief minister demanded that the process of deleting names through Form 7 should be initiated only by the booth level officer (BLO) and not from any other source. He also sought that details, including the Assembly constituency, booth number and the person who submitted Form 7, be made public.

Meanwhile, the state CEO detailed the progress of the SIR exercise and said that 3.26 crore electors were identified to be issued notices either due ‘no mapping’ or ‘logical discrepancies’ in mapping in their enumeration forms.

“Around 3.25 crore notices have been generated and printed so far. Of these, 1.85 crore notices have been delivered and hearings in 1.15 crore cases have been completed,” the CEO said, adding 13,161 officers have been deployed for conducting hearings on notices.

The CEO assured that all hearings would be completed within the stipulated timeline by March 27.

On Form 6 application, used for inclusion of names, Rinwa said that 54.4 lakh applications were received between January 6 and February 17, of which 27.20 lakh were from women.

Also, 36.76 lakh of them are in the age group of 18 to 29 years.

Clarifying on Form 7, used for deletion of names, he said 1,40,425 applications were received during the same period, including 55,752 for women voters, 84667 for men and six for third gender.

Earlier in the day, a delegation of Samajwadi Party leaders submitted a written complaint to the state CEO alleging large-scale irregularities in the SIR process. The party claimed that no action had been taken on its repeated complaints and alleged that a “triangular nexus” involving the EC, the state administration and the BJP had initiated a process of issuing notices to certain voters under the pretext of “logical errors”.

Speaking about the meeting with the SP leaders, Rinwa said discussions indicated the need for greater clarity on notices related to logical discrepancies and required documents.

Without naming any political party, he said the allegations regarding the deletion of names were not true.

On Monday, Akhilesh Yadav had cited the case of a man named Nandlal, alleging that, though the man used a thumb impression, signatures were obtained from him by BJP workers for filing Form 7.

Regarding the case of Nandlal, the CEO said that he can lodge any FIR in the case, but so far the EC has not received any complaint.