Akhilesh Yadav Accuses BJP, EC Of Rushing SIR In Uttar Pradesh

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday accused the BJP and the Election Commission of rushing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that both were “working together” to undermine voters’ rights. According to PTI, Yadav said the haste surrounding the exercise suggested a coordinated effort to influence the rolls ahead of the next elections.

Addressing reporters at the party headquarters in Lucknow, the former chief minister questioned the timing of the SIR drive. “Why is the BJP in a hurry regarding the SIR exercise? Both the Election Commission and the BJP are hand in glove in the matter,” he said. Reported PTI, Yadav argued that the revision process had been pushed at a moment when people across the state were preoccupied with wedding events and unable to give proper attention to electoral documentation.

“I had said earlier too that it is the marriage season in Uttar Pradesh, and people are either travelling or busy making preparations. In such a situation, carrying out this exercise across the state and assigning responsibilities arbitrarily is unjustified,” he said. He criticised the government for assigning even sanitation workers as assistants to booth-level officers (BLOs), saying the paperwork was “lengthy and highly technical” and should not be handled by those without the necessary training. “If BLOs cannot complete them properly, how will sanitation workers manage this responsibility,” he asked.

Yadav also challenged the government’s claims on the distribution of SIR forms. PTI reported him as saying that official data suggested full distribution, but the situation on the ground told a different story. “This mismatch in distribution and collection exposes a conspiracy,” he claimed, adding that the entire exercise appeared to be a “well-planned strategy” aimed at weakening constitutional protections. “This is a conspiracy to snatch away the right to vote guaranteed by B R Ambedkar. Under the pretext of this revision exercise, they want to take away voting rights, end reservations, and even strip people of their identity while exerting pressure through false cases,” he alleged.

The SP chief demanded transparency and accused the BJP government of attempting to shape the electoral rolls to its advantage. He highlighted the recent death of booth-level officer Vijay Kumar Verma, who suffered a brain haemorrhage on 14 November, allegedly after working late hours on SIR duties. Meeting Verma’s family at the party office, Yadav announced financial assistance of ₹2 lakh and urged the state government to provide ₹1 crore in compensation, a government job for a family member, and welfare benefits.

Citing the family’s account, he said Verma collapsed while completing SIR-related work late at night and was declared dead by doctors. The relatives alleged that officials later tried to claim Verma had been relieved of duty and had a pre-existing illness, and also pressured the school where he worked as a shiksha mitra to support this narrative.

Yadav said he had also met the family of another BLO, Sudhir Kumar Kori, in Fatehpur, who allegedly died by suicide under pressure to complete revision tasks. The family, he claimed, told him that Kori had been facing constant harassment over the ongoing SIR duties.

He accused the Election Commission of remaining silent during previous by-elections in the state, alleging booth capturing, bogus voting, and official indifference to complaints. He said the Commission had refused to release CCTV footage from polling stations that could show who cast illegal votes, including individuals who arrived in plain clothes.

Yadav added that he had received a letter from SP MP Rajeev Rai alleging that officials in the Ghosi Lok Sabha constituency were creating obstacles and had already removed around 30,000 names from each Assembly segment. He further claimed that the BJP had hired a Noida-based private firm to analyse digital voter rolls and compile booth-wise details, including voters’ mobile numbers, by scraping data publicly available on the Election Commission’s website. This, he said, was part of a broader attempt to influence the electoral process.

(With inputs from PTI)