Congress alleges SIR irregularities in UP’s Pilibhit, cites 16,000 voter discrepancies

UP Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam on Wednesday (October 21) alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh has created discrepancies for over 16,000 voters in the Pilibhit Assembly constituency.

What UP Congress chief said

At a press conference at the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters, Gautam alleged that while the EPIC numbers of 13,150 voters remain the same, their names were changed between July and September this year.

Also Read: Amid SIR row, UP launches voter enrolment drive for missing, first-time voters

The UP Congress chief said that nearly 804 voters in the same constituency were deleted and are now seeking inclusion. Likewise, the party alleges, over 2400 “dubious voters” have been added to the voter list.

The party's national spokesperson, Supriya Shrinate, alleged that the Election Commission headquarters made the changes directly and that district magistrates in the affected constituencies reportedly told party workers they do not have access to the software to make such changes.

Questions centralised changes to electoral rolls

Shrinate also targeted Seema Khanna, Director General of IT at the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging that legitimate voters were being deleted and fraudulent voters added through a centralised process using software platforms such as ECINet and ERONet, bypassing regional Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).

Also Read: UP's SIR: Voter list flooded with 'logical discrepancies' days before draft roll, BLOs say

“This is Seema Khanna. She is the head of the technology and software department at the Election Commission. Nobody knows where she is these days. You have all seen the reports alleging that people’s names are being deleted, added and changed through software, among other irregularities. You have also seen reports in which DMs, SDMs, ADMs and EROs have repeatedly stated that they do not have access to the software,” Shrinate alleged.

District team to verify Congress allegations

Speaking to The Federal, Pilibhit’s Electoral Registration Officer (ELO) Hemant Kumar Chaudhary said that the commission and the district administration have formed a team to verify the charges levelled by the Congress party.

“We cannot say whether these charges are genuine or misleading. We have received the list and formed a team to investigate these charges. We’ll conduct door-to-door mapping and corrections/ revisions will be done accordingly if needed. We are also holding special camps on October 24 where affected people can visit and seek their inclusion by submitting relevant documents and representation to the BLOs,” Chaudhary said.

Akhilesh raises similar concerns over voter lists

Last week, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav levelled similar allegations against the Election Commission of India (ECI). The party says party workers provided these lists to the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for correction during the voter revision exercise launched by the state election commission.

Citing an example of a young voter, Vikas Yadav from Azamgarh, Akhilesh Yadav had alleged that at least 14 different voters were registered under the same name.

Also Read: Over 2 crore voters deleted from UP rolls after SIR; final electorate at 13.39 crore

State Election Commission, on its part, has maintained that they are carrying out special campaigns across all 75 districts in the state to not only include new voters but also carry out revisions and corrections in the electoral rolls to include legitimate voters who may have been left out during the SIR exercise in the state launched in December last year.

On October 24, the State Election Commission will hold a special drive for voter list revision and addition of new voters.