Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of planning to bring people from other states and register them as voters in Uttar Pradesh.
He linked the allegation to BJP organisational meetings and the row over Yogi Adityanath’s claim that 1.27 crore Hindu voters were missing from the rolls.
Adityanath cited differences between panchayat and Assembly voter lists and said the BJP had asked the Election Commission to include eligible voters.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday accused the BJP of plotting to bring people from other states to Uttar Pradesh and register them as voters, adding a new charge to the political row over Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s claim that 1.27 crore Hindu voters are missing after Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Yadav made the allegation after reaching the SP headquarters in Lucknow for a review meeting with assembly-level presidents from 86 reserved constituencies. The BJP had called organisational meetings in the state, he said, to prepare for what it described as “shifting” votes.
“If it is true that 1.27 crore Hindu voters are missing, that is precisely why this meeting (of BJP) is taking place,” ANI quoted Yadav as saying. He alleged the party was preparing to deal with voters whose names had been deleted after they moved to Delhi or elsewhere, as well as names he described as fraudulent.
Yadav further claimed the BJP planned to bring people from Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, among other places, and register them as voters in Uttar Pradesh. He referred to the alleged plan as involving “underground or unregistered elements”.
Yogi Adityanath Says 1.27 Crore Hindu Voters Missing
The SP chief’s remarks follow Adityanath’s allegation that 1.27 crore Hindu voters were absent from the state’s electoral rolls, while the number of Muslim voters had increased by 1.65%.
Speaking to a television channel, the chief minister cited differences between panchayat and Assembly voter lists. He claimed that 66 lakh names appearing on panchayat rolls were missing from the Assembly rolls. He also cited around 55 lakh Hindu beneficiaries of government welfare schemes and 4.5 lakh voters aged 18 to 19 whose names, he said, were absent.
Adityanath said the BJP had submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission seeking the inclusion of eligible voters left off the rolls.
Yadav Credits PDA Workers With Protecting Votes
Yadav thanked PDA volunteers, party workers and leaders for monitoring the process and sharing information. He uses “PDA” to refer to Pichhda (backward classes), Dalits and Alpsankhyak (minorities), a grouping that forms a central part of the SP’s political strategy in Uttar Pradesh.
The SP chief alleged that the BJP had made “extensive attempts to delete votes on a large scale” but said PDA communities had managed to protect their votes. He described Adityanath’s claim about missing Hindu voters as part of a “deep-rooted conspiracy to spread fear in society and reap political benefits”, PTI reported.
