CEO ordered removal of 5 BLOs and a computer assistant from poll duties (Representative Image)
LUCKNOW: Days after 158 unusual entries surfaced in the electoral rolls of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council’s Graduates’ and Teachers’ constituencies, another similar discrepancy has emerged in Azamgarh, where 13 entries in an assembly constituency’s voter list carried the same Hindi name, Vikas Yadav, despite belonging to different individuals. The investigation followed allegations raised by the Samajwadi Party during an October 15 press conference that Vikas Yadav’s name appeared 10 times in the electoral roll of assembly constituency 347-Azamgarh. Taking note of the irregularities, Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa on Saturday ordered action against nine election personnel, including five booth-level officers (BLOs), a computer assistant and three supervisory officers.
13 entries carried the Hindi name Vikas Yadav, according to the district election officer’s investigation. Two had already been deleted, while the remaining 11 belonged to different individuals residing in separate villages of Azamgarh. Form 8 applications have been obtained to correct the names and other particulars of the remaining 10 voters.
Their English names were correct, but their Hindi names were changed to Vikas Yadav,” he said. In the Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates’ constituency, one voter, Ravi Sharma, had his father’s name recorded as “Ram Ne Sharma Ko Mara”, while another entry read “Ram Ne Yadav Ko Mara”. Narendra Yadav’s father’s name appeared as “B Com”.
Of these, only one was the genuine Vikas Yadav. Investigators also identified another voter with the same name and father’s name in Gorakhpur’s Chauri Chaura assembly constituency. “The genuine Vikas Yadav submitted only one application. The remaining entries belonged to different voters. The Azamgarh district election officer has been directed to scrutinise electoral rolls across all assembly constituencies and submit a report within a week.