Akhilesh Yadav Alleges BJP-Backed Electoral Roll Manipulation In Uttar Pradesh, Claims 19 Lakh Fake Voters Identified & Accuses Election Commission Of Bias | Watch

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday accused the BJP of manipulating electoral rolls with the alleged support of the Election Commission and the administration, claiming that 19 lakh fake voters had been detected so far.

Addressing a press conference at the SP headquarters in Lucknow, Yadav alleged that the Election Commission was treating BJP members as Indian citizens while raising objections to voters allegedly associated with opposition parties.

“When the BJP appears to be losing ground among the people, it hides behind the Election Commission. Both are betraying the Constitution and the people,” he alleged.

Yadav said he had been accusing the Election Commission of working at the BJP's behest since 2022. He alleged that attempts were being made to manipulate voter lists on a large scale with the cooperation of the administration.

Listing what he described as the BJP's 10 electoral tactics, the SP chief accused the ruling party of getting bogus votes registered, deleting the names of opposition supporters, intimidating voters with firearms on polling day, manipulating EVMs and tampering with vote counting. He also alleged that losing candidates were sometimes awarded victory certificates and that opposition parties were deliberately weakened through defections and splits.

Yadav claimed that SP workers had helped expose attempts to manipulate electoral rolls. In Sarojini Nagar, more than 100 forms had allegedly been submitted in the name of a person named Dashrath. He said the Election Commission had acknowledged the validity of the complaint.

In Sultanpur, he alleged, applications were submitted to delete names from the voter list using forged signatures of a person named Nandlal.

Yadav claimed that 16 lakh allegedly fake voters had been identified earlier, followed by another three lakh, taking the total to 19 lakh. He alleged that the highest numbers were reported from Loni, where 15,000 fake voters were purportedly added, and Sahibabad, where the figure was 13,000.

He further alleged that voter list manipulation was particularly widespread in constituencies where the BJP feared electoral losses.

Referring to Moradabad, where the SP lost by 722 votes, Yadav claimed that 8,000 fake votes had since been added to the electoral rolls. He alleged that bogus voter registrations were being used to influence the outcome in constituencies where the BJP anticipated defeat.

The allegations could not be independently verified from the information available. The Election Commission and the BJP's response to the charges was not immediately available.

During the press conference, Yadav also inducted several leaders into the SP, including Bhawani Bhikh Shukla, a district panchayat member and representative of the block pramukh from Katra in Gonda district. Shukla is considered close to former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.