Five days before the extended enumeration phase concludes on December 26, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday asserted that elected representatives cannot shirk their responsibility when it comes to non-submission of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) forms as he expressed concern over around three crore missing names.
He was speaking at a joint meeting of party MLAs and MPs at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan where the BJP organised a workshop for the second phase of SIR.
All MLAs, MPs, district presidents, and district in-charges were invited to the workshop which was also addressed by deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and the state general secretary (organisation) Dharmpal Singh, besides national general secretary Tarun Chugh.
Adityanath told party MLAs and MPs that the Samajwadi Party and the Congress were taking SIR seriously and carrying out all tasks related to it.
“They are opposing SIR in public just for the sake of opposing it,” he said.
“People have the misconception that they will lose rights over their property if their names are missing from the voter list in their villages,” he added.
This misconception has led to switching of urban voters to rural constituencies, he said.
{{/usCountry}}This misconception has led to switching of urban voters to rural constituencies, he said.
{{/usCountry}}In order to contest panchayat polls, there is no need to shift names from urban to rural centres, he said, adding that there is a separate voter list for the panchayat polls.
He told elected representatives to identify sensitive booths in their respective constituencies and report it to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
SIR impact will last 20 years, says Chugh
Warning party MPs and MLAs, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh said those who do not want to contest elections should inform chief minister Yogi Adityanath and state president Pankaj Chaudhary in advance but they should not betray the party by neglecting SIR.
“Those who complete the SIR work now, will become MLAs and MPs for the next 20 years,” Chugh added.
In constituencies where the victory margin was only 100-500 votes (in 2022), if they don’t focus on SIR, MLAs will lose the (next) election, he cautioned.
“If we don’t pay attention to such seats and voters’ names are removed, how will we win? Therefore, we need to secure our votes from now on,” he said.
Lucknow Cantt has high number of shifted voters
Adityanath presented a list of constituencies where the SIR work was lagging. It was revealed that deputy CM Brajesh Pathak’s Lucknow Cantt assembly constituency had a high number of shifted voters, and higher education minister Yogendra Upadhyay’s Agra South constituency had a high number of missing voters.
Lucknow North, Lucknow South, Hardoi, Milkipur and Lakhimpur were also in the list of top 25 assembly constituencies regarding shifted, missing, and deceased voters. The CM presented the data at the meeting.
“Check the booth’s voter list to ensure that none of your voters have been incorrectly marked as shifted or deceased. Make sure that a voter’s name is not being excluded from the list due to some minor reason,” he said.
‘Names will be removed on objection’
He said any suspicious name found in the draft voter list should be objected to. As soon as an objection is filed, the BLO will remove the name, and it will only be added back after the person concerned submits an affidavit and other documents.
‘Change booth of Hindu voters’
In booths where there are 800 Muslim and 200 Hindu votes, there is a need to change the booth of the Hindu voters, because due to the large number of Muslim voters, “our voters” do not go to vote, he said. He laid stress on focusing more on Muslim-majority assembly constituencies during the claims and objections process.
‘Too many deceased voters in Mankapur’
The CM said 3 to 5% percent of elderly people were shown as deceased in Mankapur assembly constituency of Gonda, which is not possible.