Lucknow: Teachers may be accustomed to evaluating students and marking answer sheets, but when it came to casting their votes in the 2026 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections, a significant number of their ballots failed the validity test. As many as 9.05% of votes polled in one teachers’ constituency were declared invalid, while all six teachers’ constituencies witnessed an increase in rejected ballots compared to the 2020 elections.
Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers’ constituency recorded the highest rejection rate, with 3,183 of the 35,161 votes polled declared invalid, accounting for 9.05%. Meerut Teachers’ constituency followed closely, with 2,809 invalid votes out of 31,214 polled, representing 9%, against 5.82% six years ago. Agra recorded 2,128 invalid votes out of 29,865 polled, taking its rejection rate to 7.13%, compared to 4.06% in 2020. The constituency registered an increase of 3.07 percentage points. Lucknow Teachers’ constituency witnessed 1,824 invalid votes out of 27,659 polled, accounting for 6.59%, compared to 5.05% in the previous election. Lucknow Graduates’ constituency recorded 11,223 invalid votes out of 1,23,444 polled, accounting for 9.09%, the highest rejection rate among all 11 constituencies that went to polls. Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates’ constituency recorded 9,596 invalid votes, representing 8.76%, while Meerut registered 3,976 rejected ballots, accounting for 8.75%. Varanasi recorded 9,472 invalid votes, or 7.96%, while Agra reported 5,852 invalid votes, representing 6.17%.
The figures reveal an unusual electoral paradox. Teachers, who are professionally engaged in imparting education and assessing students, recorded thousands of invalid ballots in an election where voters were required to follow a specific preferential voting procedure. Interestingly, the situation was no different among graduate voters.