Adityanath focusing on deletion of Hindu voters to spread fear: Akhilesh

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Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of deliberately spreading fear by claiming that 1.27 crore Hindu voters' names had been deleted from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alleging that the statement was part of a larger political conspiracy.

Speaking to reporters at the Samajwadi Party office, Yadav questioned how Adityanath knew the religious identity of voters whose names were allegedly missing from the rolls and how he had obtained the figures from the Election Commission of India (ECI).

"How can a chief minister who has taken an oath make such a statement? It is also a mystery how the Election Commission gave him this information. How does he know that the names of 1.27 crore Hindu voters have been deleted?" Yadav asked.

He said that if the Samajwadi Party made a similar claim about the deletion of one crore voters belonging to its PDA (Pichhade, Dalit, Alpasankhyak) constituency, it would invite criticism. He also suggested that the ECI had pulled up Adityanath, claiming that the chief minister had since stopped repeating the figure of 1.27 crore in his speeches.

"I have been listening to his speeches, and he is no longer talking about it," Yadav said.

The SP chief alleged that his party workers had managed to prevent irregularities in the electoral roll revision through Form 7, which is used to seek the deletion of names from voter lists. He claimed that more than 100 such forms had been submitted using the signature of a single individual, following which the Election Commission stopped the practice.

Yadav further alleged that a large number of SP voters' names had been targeted using the signature of the party's city president, and questioned the BJP's alleged understanding with the poll panel.

"If we assume that 1.27 crore BJP votes have been deleted, that works out to around 31,000 votes in every constituency," he said, alleging that the ruling party was now preparing another conspiracy to influence the electoral process.

He also claimed that voters could be brought in from other states, including Uttarakhand, and alleged that discrepancies could be created between voter lists inside and outside polling stations, leaving genuine voters unable to exercise their franchise.

As a safeguard, Yadav proposed that voter identity cards be made of metal and that biometric verification be introduced to prevent electoral fraud.

"If biometric verification can be used in the public distribution system, why can't it be used in voter lists?" he asked, adding that his party would implement the proposal if voted to power.

Turning to other political issues, Yadav accused the BJP government of discriminating against various sections of society and taking aim at those engaged in cattle rearing. He said derogatory remarks against cowherds amounted to an insult to Lord Gopal.

"First there was theft in the Ram Temple. Now Lord Krishna is being targeted. They are trying to establish their own सत्ता, separate from Sanatan Dharma," he said.

The SP chief also accused the BJP of spending crores of rupees on propaganda and misusing artificial intelligence to defame political opponents and spread negativity.

Yadav asserted that the Samajwadi Party and the INDIA bloc were prepared for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, adding that the BJP would lose once the election dates were announced.

With PTI inputs