BJP trying to cut at least 50000 votes in INDIA bloc strongholds: Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], November 22 (ANI): Amid the ongoing nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, including in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of seeking to cut at least 50,000 votes, particularly in constituencies where the INDIA bloc has shown strong performance.
"The most important point is that the BJP, its government, its officials, and the Election Commission are working together to cancel over 50,000 votes in the assembly constituencies where the Samajwadi Party and the INDIA Alliance won in 2024, using the pretext of SIR," Akhilesh Yadav told reporters here.
He further alleged that similar plans are in place in West Bengal too, calling for people and parties to be vigilant.
According to Samajwadi Party leader KK Shrivastava, who also addressed the press conference, there are serious gaps between the rules laid out for conducting the SIR and the actual ground reality.
Shrivastava said that while the ECI mandates that each Booth Level Officer (BLO) is required to physically go to people's houses and give the form, and alleged that in reality the form is simply sent over whatsapp whenever electors ask for it themselves.
"According to rules by ECI, a BLO has to go to each house, give two forms and collect it after it is filled. But we saw that when people asked for the form to be given to them, the BLO said he is not able to come physically but can send it over Whatsapp," Shrivastava said.
He further alleged that it was mainly people from the marginalised communities, including from Muslims, Dalit, extremely backward classes.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India informed on Friday that pproximately 99 per cent of total electors have received the enumeration forms (EFs) for the second phase and more than 13.64 crore forms have been digitised.
Of the nearly 50.97 crore electors as of October 27, the number of enumeration forms distributed for the second phase of the SIR drive remains at 50.43 crore, the EC said in its daily bulletin.
Of the 12 states and Union Territories, Goa and Lakshadweep achieved 100 per cent distribution of enumeration forms. Nearly 11.85 crore EFs have been distributed in Goa, with a total of 11,85,034 electors.
The lowest EF digitisation remains in Kerala at 6.18 per cent and Uttar Pradesh at 9.21 per cent.
INDIA bloc parties have opposed the manner in which SIR has been conducted. (ANI)