Where is proof Muslim, Yadav voters were deleted in UP polls, EC asks Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has been given till November 10 to submit proof to substantiate allegations made earlier this year, news agency ANI said Thursday. Yadav had claimed that the poll body deliberately deleted the names of nearly 20,000 voters from Yadav and Muslim communities ahead of the election in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year.

The former UP chief minister alleged this was done at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party; the BJP romped to victory and chief minister Yogi Adityanath won a second consecutive term. According to ANI, Akhilesh Yadav has been asked to furnish constituency-wise details of the alleged deleted names, so that the poll body can take action as needed.

In March, Yadav - whose party struck up a 'rainbow alliance' with regional parties and banked on discontent among farmers to overthrow the BJP - alleged irregularities in the election process. He also pointed to the release of Vivek Agnihotri's 'The Kashmir Files', which was released before the polls began and led to controversy over its depiction of Kashmiri Pandits.

READ | Akhilesh Yadav alleges irregularities in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls

On the question of alleged irregularities, Yadav claimed the counting of votes had been stopped, or slowed, at many places in the state when the Samajwadi Party candidate was leading and 'results' in favour of the BJP candidate were declared each time. This, he claimed, was done at the express order of senior officials in chief minister Yogi Adityanath's office.

He gave the constituency of Varanasi (South) - in prime minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha seat - as an example.

In that seat, the BJP's Neelkanth Tiwari beat the SP's Kishan Dixit. "I have no hope from the Election Commission. People themselves, in some way, have to fight to save democracy," he had said at a hastily convened presser in Lucknow.

Yadav also hinted at collusion between the BJP and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, and that EVMs were being transported without informing candidates.

The Samajwadi Party, for all its pre-poll hype, slumped to defeat against the BJP, winning just 47 seats. The BJP secured 312 to claim a big win ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, for which winning a majority of UP's 80 seats will be crucial.

With input from ANI