Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) ordered legal action against officials responsible for errors in the electoral roll of Pilibhit Sadar Assembly constituency and directed their immediate removal from voter list duties, following a complaint that Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers were displaying details of other voters.
Subsequent checks confirmed that searching certain voters’ EPIC numbers online displayed details of other voters. The party has also sought the Supreme Court’s intervention in the matter. Citing examples, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that names such as Rashid were changed to Abdul, Mohammad Yusuf to Hasrat, Mohammad Waseem to Sher Mohammad, and Mohammad Shadab to Salim Khan. She claimed that most of the altered names belonged to Muslim men and alleged that voter details were changed through software. The post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rolls have faced further scrutiny after social media users flagged alleged duplicate entries involving electors with multiple voter IDs.
The action comes after the Congress alleged large-scale changes to the electoral roll in Pilibhit Sadar, claiming that 13,150 voters’ names were changed while their EPIC numbers remained unchanged. 13,150 names were changed in the assembly between July and September, after the final electoral roll was published on April 10, without Form 6 or Form 7 applications, according to allegations levelled by the Congress. The party further claimed that 804 living voters were deleted and 2,600 names of people who did not reside in the constituency were added.
UP Congress in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam alleged a conspiracy that could influence electoral outcomes, while MP Imran Masood said the party would pursue the issue “on the streets, in Parliament and in courts. The UP CEO’s office has said officials are working on deduplication to remove such entries. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Uttar Pradesh, said the complaint was investigated through the District Election Officer, Pilibhit.
