E-Paper
‘Ram ne Yadav ko maara, B.Com’: Bizarre entries in voter list for UP MLC polls
Online registration was introduced for the first time to add names to the electoral rolls for legislative council elections in Uttar Pradesh.
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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.
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.
Voter roll names translated
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. However, 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.
“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.
District election officers in the Allahabad-Jhansi constituency function as assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) and are responsible for ensuring that voters’ 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.
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A total of 14,81,310 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise across the 11 constituencies. According to the official data, the turnout stood at 55.24% till 4.00 pm. The Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers’ constituency recorded the highest turnout at 79.01%.
Deep Dive
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.
“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.
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.
