The voters’ list for the Allahabad-Jhansi graduates’ constituency in the Uttar Pradesh MLC polls revealed bizarre entries in the father’s name column, which was filled with phrases in Hindi such as “Ram ne Yadav ko maara”, “Ram ne Sharma ko maara” and “B.Com”, chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said on Friday, adding that he has sought an explanation from officials to clarify the errors in the electoral rolls.
Uttar Pradesh MLC voter list errors, including ‘Ram ne Yadav ko maara’ and ‘B.Com’ in fathers’ names, have triggered a probe and possible action against officials. (Representative photo)
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Rinwa sought a report from the divisional commissioners of Jhansi and Prayagraj and said action would be taken against erring officials.
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Polling was held on Friday for 11 biennial Uttar Pradesh legislative council seats, including five constituencies for graduates and six for teachers. However, officials ensured voters did not face any inconvenience because of these errors.
Deep Dive
Why did phrases like “Ram ne Yadav ko maara” appear in the UP MLC voter list?
The online system translated names entered in English into Hindi instead of transliterating them. For example, it interpreted “Ram hit Yadav” as a Hindi sentence rather than a name.
How did “B.Com” end up in the father’s name column of the voter list?
The chief electoral officer said this appeared to be a case of human error or negligence. Electoral registration officers were responsible for correcting such entries.
Could an eligible voter cast a ballot if their details were incorrect in the UP MLC electoral roll?
Authorities were directed to ensure that eligible voters were not denied the right to vote because of clerical or printing errors. Presiding officers were instructed to check the required documents and allow eligible voters to cast their ballots.
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Rinwa said online registration was introduced for the first time to add names to the electoral rolls for legislative council elections in Uttar Pradesh. The software was designed to translate names entered in English into Hindi but, in some cases, produced incorrect results.
For instance, if a voter’s name was Ramhit Yadav but it was mistakenly entered as “Ram hit Yadav”, the software translated it into “Ram ne Yadav ko maara”, the UP CEO clarified.
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“The software had a provision to edit and correct such errors, but they persisted where voters failed to verify their entries. However, entering ‘B.Com’ in the father’s name column amounted to negligence, and electoral registration officers should have corrected such entries,” Rinwa said.
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“The software had a provision to edit and correct such errors, but they persisted where voters failed to verify their entries. However, entering ‘B.Com’ in the father’s name column amounted to negligence, and electoral registration officers should have corrected such entries,” Rinwa said.
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District election officers in the Allahabad-Jhansi constituency function as assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) and are responsible for ensuring that voter lists are free of errors.
A total of 152 candidates are in the fray for the MLC polls, voting began at 8 am and concluded at 4 pm across 2,697 polling stations in 72 districts. A total of 14,81,310 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise, with 12,309 polling personnel deployed across the 11 constituencies.
Rajesh Kumar Singh is Assistant Editor, Hindustan Times, at the political bureau in Lucknow. An Alumnus of Ramjas College, Delhi and the University of Delhi, he has covered politics in the Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for three decades and has written extensively on Dalit and OBC politics. He travelled across Uttar Pradesh to cover the panchayat, assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Along with writing on development issues, governance and public policy has done crime reporting, including Maoist activities in Bihar as well as activities of gangsters in East Uttar Pradesh, Jungle Party gang active on UP- Bihar border, dacoit gangs in Bundelkhand region and Sand Mafia active in various districts of UP. Has done investigations and reporting exposing multi-crore NRHM scam in UP, Nutrition scam, Medicine supply scam, irregularities in the flood management projects, weapon smuggling and human trafficking on Indo- Nepal border. He highlighted the deaths of children due to encephalitis in the districts of East Uttar Pradesh; the central and state government took cognisance of the report to launch schemes to check deaths and improve the facilities in the health centres and hospitals. He also reported on the social issues in East Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand- migration, farming crisis, water crisis, plight of the deprived communities- Musahar, Vantongiyas, Sahariya and Kol communities. He covers state government departments. He also travels to write human-interest stories and in-depth stories from the ground in the Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, and Rohilkhand regions of Uttar Pradesh.
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Home/India News/‘Ram ne Yadav ko maara, B.Com’: Bizarre entries in voter list for UP MLC polls
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