Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav intensified his attack on the Election Commission (EC) and Uttar Pradesh district magistrates, questioning their "sudden activism" in responding to his allegations of voter list anomalies during the 2022 assembly polls. In a post on X, Yadav accused the BJP government, the EC, and local administration of forming a "triad" that "hijacked democracy" by manipulating voter rolls, demanding a judicial probe into the alleged nexus.
Yadav’s remarks followed rebuttals from the district magistrates of Kasganj, Barabanki, and Jaunpur, who on Tuesday refuted his claims of wrongful voter deletions. Kasganj DM Pranay Singh stated that seven voters in Amapur remained on the rolls, with one removed after due process following their death. Jaunpur DM Dinesh Chandra clarified that five flagged voters had died before 2022, justifying their removal. Barabanki DM Shashank Tripathi confirmed that two allegedly deleted voters in the Kursi constituency were still listed.
Rejecting these explanations as "superficial," Yadav argued that the DMs’ responses prove the EC’s claim of not receiving SP’s affidavits was false. “If there were no affidavits, what are these DMs replying to now?” he questioned, alleging their delayed responses indicate complicity. He reiterated that the SP submitted 18,000 affidavits documenting large-scale voter deletions, demanding the EC provide an affidavit verifying the authenticity of digital receipts issued to the party.
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Yadav called for courts to intervene, stating, “Either the EC or the DMs are lying,” and urged a thorough investigation into the alleged collusion. He claimed the BJP manipulated voter lists to favor its electoral prospects, a charge the party has dismissed as baseless. The controversy, reignited by Yadav’s distribution of affidavit copies in Parliament on August 18, has escalated tensions, with the SP alleging systematic disenfranchisement of backward communities and minorities.
As the debate intensifies, Yadav warned that the public would deliver a verdict on this “triad” of the BJP, EC, and local officials. With the SP vowing to pursue justice, the issue of voter list integrity remains a flashpoint in Uttar Pradesh, raising questions about electoral transparency ahead of future polls.
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