Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led government, accusing it of using the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh as a backdoor method to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Addressing party functionaries in Lucknow, Yadav claimed the ongoing voter verification exercise was being misused to interfere with the democratic process.
Yadav alleged that instead of ensuring transparency, the SIR process was being exploited to engineer electoral outcomes by selectively adding and deleting names from voter lists. He warned that the Samajwadi Party would closely monitor the exercise at the booth level and would not hesitate to initiate legal action if any irregularities were detected. According to him, party workers have been provided with pre-prepared FIR formats to ensure swift complaints against anyone found tampering with voter registration.
Describing the SIR as “NRC by another name,” the former chief minister questioned the role of constitutional institutions in the process. He alleged that functions traditionally associated with the Union Home Ministry were effectively being carried out through the Election Commission, raising concerns about institutional overreach and political pressure.
The SP chief also pointed to what he called alarming inconsistencies in voter data. He claimed that figures released by different election authorities did not match, creating serious doubts about the integrity of electoral rolls. Referring to publicly available data, Yadav said central records suggest around 12.56 crore registered voters in Uttar Pradesh, while state-level figures indicate that rural voter numbers alone are higher, with the overall total crossing 17 crore when urban voters are added. He questioned how such discrepancies could exist when the same administrative machinery and booth-level officers are responsible for the process.
Yadav further alleged that recent remarks by senior government leaders about large-scale deletion of voter names only strengthened suspicions of systematic manipulation. He said such statements indicated that millions of voters could be at risk of being unfairly excluded from the electoral process.
Beyond electoral concerns, the Samajwadi Party leader accused the BJP government of failing on governance, alleging rampant corruption and illegal occupation of land belonging to the government and economically weaker sections. He claimed that public dissatisfaction was steadily growing and predicted that the political mood in the state was shifting ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
