Chief Electoral officer Uttar Pradesh, Navdeep Rinwa
LUCKNOW: A day after TOI exposed bizarre names and parental details in the electoral rolls of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council’s Graduates’ constituencies, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa on Thursday said fewer than 150 voters had been identified with incorrectly printed names or parental details among 14.81 lakh registered electors, accounting for less than 0.01% of the electorate.
Explaining the digitisation exercise, the CEO said the Election Commission’s Sept 5, 2016 instructions had envisaged online registration facilities for eligible applicants. The portal, launched on Oct 1, 2025, allowed applicants to submit registration forms from home. Based on the Nov 1, 2025 qualifying date, 3,43,355 applicants registered online, comprising 2,91,273 Graduates’ constituency applicants and 52,082 Teachers’ constituency applicants. The final electoral roll was published online on Jan 6, 2026, and uploaded to district election officers’ websites.
Meanwhile, Rinwa directed election officials to ensure that no eligible voter is denied voting rights due to clerical or printing errors during Friday’s polling.
The online platform was developed by the election office’s IT team with technical assistance within four months, incorporating voter registration, application processing, approval, rejection, duplication checks, serialisation and electoral roll downloads, according to the CEO. The clarification came after TOI reported several unusual entries in the Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates’ constituency electoral roll, including a voter named Ravi Sharma whose father’s name was recorded as “Ram Ne Sharma Ko Mara”, another named “Ram Ne Yadav Ko Mara”, and Narendra Yadav, whose father’s name appeared as “B Com”.