AT LEAST three district magistrates, of Barabanki, Jaunpur and Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh, have countered the allegations of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav of large-scale voter deletions and irregularities during the 2022 state Assembly elections.
Addressing reporters in the Parliament complex Monday, Akhilesh said the SP had submitted affidavits to the Election Commission (EC) on the issue, and shared some documents which he claimed pointed to the anomalies. He then specifically talked of voter deletions in a “targeted manner” against “certain communities” in Amanpur, Bakshi Ka Talab, Jaunpur Sadar and Kursi Assembly seats in the 2022 polls.
While the Amanpur Assembly seat falls in Kasganj district, Kursi is in Barabanki district, Jaunpur Sadar in Jaunpur district, and Bakshi Ka Talab is part of Lucknow district. All four were won by the BJP both in the 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections. In 2017, the SP had fought the Assembly polls in alliance with the Congress.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, when the SP and Congress again fought together, their alliance won all the Lok Sabha seats under which these Assembly segments fall.
In a post, Barabanki DM Shashank Tripathi said affidavits had been received from two voters of Kursi Assembly seat claiming wrongful deletion of their names from electoral rolls. However, the DM said, upon inquiry, it was found that the names of both were duly recorded in the electoral rolls.
Jaunpur DM Dinesh Chandra stated on X that a complaint was received via email regarding alleged wrongful deletion of five names from the voter list of Jaunpur Sadar. A verification revealed that all five voters had passed away prior to 2022, the DM said, adding that this had been confirmed by their family members, local residents, and the local corporator.
Accordingly, Chandra said, the names of the deceased had been removed from the electoral rolls. The SP complaint was baseless and misleading, the DM said.
Kasganj DM Pranay Singh also posted on X about receiving a complaint via email regarding alleged incorrect deletion of names of eight voters of Amanpur (Assembly Constituency No. 101). The DM said their probe showed that the names of seven voters had been entered twice in the electoral rolls, and hence the duplication was removed. The name of the eighth voter was deleted in accordance with the rules, the DM said, after his wife submitted a form saying he was deceased.
2017, 2022 Assembly polls
There was no distinct pattern to the changes in vote share of the SP and BJP in these four seats between the two polls. If between 2017 and 2022, the BJP’s vote share increased by about 10% in Bakshi Ka Talab, the SP saw a similar rise in Kursi but still lost. In the other three seats – Amanpur, Jaunpur Sadar and Kursi – the rise in vote shares of both parties was in the range of about 5%, showing relatively stable voter support.
In Amanpur seat, the gap between the BJP and SP was substantial. However, the BJP has been steadily gaining compared to the SP here over the years, clocking a lead of more than 20 percentage points on an average.
In Jaunpur Sadar, another constituency mentioned by Akhilesh, the BJP’s vote share dipped slightly between 2017 and 2022 while the SP’s rose by a lot – thus making the seat a close contest.
Kursi saw one of the closest contests of 2022, with the BJP retaining the seat by a mere 217 votes. In comparison, in 2017, the BJP had won the seats by 30,000-odd votes.
In Bakshi Ka Talab, two clear shifts were visible: the BJP retained its dominance, though its vote share fell, and the SP replaced the BSP as the main challenger.
2012 Assembly polls
In these elections, the SP stormed to power in UP with 224 seats. Of the four constituencies mentioned by Akhilesh, it won Bakshi Ka Talab and Kursi in 2012, lost Amanpur narrowly and was nowhere in the picture in Jaunpur Sadar.
Its main rival in the first three seats was the BSP, while Jaunpur Sadar went to the Congress, with the BSP finishing second.
Lok Sabha polls
Having contested the 2022 Assembly elections separately, the SP and Congress again came together for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Under the arrangement, the SP fought from the Etah parliamentary seat (including the Amanpur Assembly segment), Mohanganj (including Bakshi Ka Talab) and Jaunpur (including Jaunpur Sadar), while the Congress contested from Barabanki (including Kursi). The alliance won all the four Lok Sabha seats.
In the specific Assembly segments, the SP was ahead of the BJP in Jaunpur Sadar by around 22,000 votes; in Amanpur, the BJP got about 5,000 votes more than the SP; in Bakshi Ka Talab, the BJP’s lead over the SP was about 4,000 votes; while in Kursi, the Congress got about 47,000 votes more than the BJP.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won three of these constituencies (Etah, Mohanganj and Barabanki), with Jaunpur going to the BSP. In 2014, the BJP had won all the four seats.
In a tweet Wednesday, Akhilesh questioned the “sudden activism” of the three DMs over his voter anomaly allegations about the 2022 Assembly polls. “Why have the DMs responded after so many years?” Akhilesh said, adding: “Their replies prove that the Election Commission’s claim that no affidavits were received was false.” He added that their responses were “superficial” and amounted to admission of their involvement.
On Thursday, Akhilesh tweeted again, asking why “of the 18,000 affidavits” submitted by his party, only 14 had received “half-baked and baseless” clarifications. “Haq ka Ganit (The arithmetic of rights): 18000-14 = 17986… Even after manipulating everything — from the Election Commission to district magistrates, from circle officers to lekhpals — the BJP-Election Commission-DM trio has managed to give clarifications on just 14 affidavits.”