Akhilesh Yadav alleges ‘conspiracy’ to cut 50,000 votes per assembly seat under SIR in UP

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav has once again raised serious objections to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh.

He has accused the BJP and sections of the administration of using the process to selectively remove opposition voters.

Launching a strong attack on both the BJP and the Election Commission, Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday alleged that a “large-scale conspiracy” is going on to delete nearly 50,000 votes in every assembly constituency, particularly in seats where the Samajwadi Party performed strongly in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

He claimed his party has “numerous pieces of evidence” showing that some administrative officials are working in coordination with BJP leaders to identify and exclude opposition supporters from the voter list.

Referring to the viral audio clip of an SDM from Kannauj, he said it proves that tampering with voter rolls is “systematic, not isolated.”

Akhilesh Yadav asserted that this alleged strategy is not confined to Uttar Pradesh alone. He said similar patterns are visible in other states, including West Bengal, and cited the example of Bihar, where he claimed around 6 million, 60 lakh votes of the RJD and other opposition parties were removed during voter list revisions.

He further criticised the timing and execution of the SIR process, saying BLOs are not going door-to-door and have not been adequately trained.

Conducting SIR during the busy wedding and farming season, he said, makes proper verification difficult and should therefore be deferred.

Demanding an extension of the SIR deadline, Akhilesh said, “When the BJP started losing on public issues, it found a new way to win elections.”

He also urged the Election Commission to issue a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all political parties to ensure transparency in the voter list revision process.

Warning that SP workers are fully alert on the ground, Akhilesh Yadav said they will not allow any “conspiracy to cut votes” to succeed in any assembly constituency.

IANS