After Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi raised concerns over alleged fake voters and irregularities in electoral rolls, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has also questioned the role of administrative officials in elections. He has urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take stern action against district officials in Uttar Pradesh where discrepancies were reported during recent bypolls.
The Kannauj MP, who was at a hotel in Gomti Nagar here to attend a private function on Sunday, said: “The issue of fake voters is serious. The Election Commission and the government should have taken measures to prevent irregularities. The BJP is adept at manufacturing fake voters and deleting genuine ones, but they have run out of tricks, and that’s why irregularities are being caught.”
He alleged that the EC ignored complaints during the bypolls. “If the DMs of these districts are terminated, no discrepancies will be seen in the voter list. Until the EC suspends or removes such officers, it won’t be able to stop the forgery,” he said.
Commenting on allegations that Bihar deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha possesses two EPIC numbers, Akhilesh said, “If the deputy CM of Bihar has two voter IDs, a booth in UP was looted at the behest of the chief minister. Can anyone imagine that?”
He also claimed that education department officers posted in Ayodhya assigned duties to others, and that in Meerapur and Kundarki, DMs and police chiefs actively prevented people from voting. “We all saw the video of a police officer with a pistol warning a woman against leaving her house. Was the EC sleeping then? That’s why we presented a white cloth to the EC,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}He also claimed that education department officers posted in Ayodhya assigned duties to others, and that in Meerapur and Kundarki, DMs and police chiefs actively prevented people from voting. “We all saw the video of a police officer with a pistol warning a woman against leaving her house. Was the EC sleeping then? That’s why we presented a white cloth to the EC,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Akhilesh further stated he would request the EC and the government to prevent such officials from “becoming criminals”. “When officers become criminals, who will act against them?” he asked.
On the monsoon session of the UP assembly, commencing Monday and featuring a special 24-hour sitting, Akhilesh said, “Why call a session for even three days? They should finish it in three hours. I am against the 24-hour session. The government hasn’t worked in the last nine years, but now they want to keep people awake for nothing. School mergers, floods, inflation, farmers’ woes and injustice will be our main issues in the assembly session.”