Akhilesh Yadav stood before the press in Lucknow and laid out a concrete demand: link every voter ID to Aadhaar and make biometric scanning non-negotiable at polling booths. He didn't ask for a review. He ordered a technological overhaul, arguing that the current system is riddled with gaps that allow duplicate registrations to flourish. The SP chief claimed his team found a 42-year-old woman named Sunita, wife of Rajesh, listed 420 times across different booths. A broader search in Uttar Pradesh pulled up 2,341 entries for that same name.
He pointed the finger at the BJP, alleging they use the Special Intensive Revision window to inject fake voters. Yadav said the Samajwadi Party has been scrutinizing these rolls and found patterns of duplicate names across districts. He argued that if the Election Commission refuses to implement mandatory biometric checks, it raises serious questions about the body's neutrality and the ruling party's intentions. "They don't want voters properly identified," he stated, framing the issue as a threat to electoral integrity rather than just a technical glitch.
The Election Commission is not sitting still. Following complaints about laxity in the Agra Division Teachers' constituency elections, the ECI suspended six officials: two Sector Magistrates, two Inspectors, and two Sub-inspectors. In a separate move, the UP Chief Electoral Officer ordered an FIR in Sultanpur district where Nand Lal’s signature was allegedly forged on 26 Form-7 applications seeking voter deletion. The concerned Booth Level Officer was removed from duty.
Yadav insists the SP will keep digging. The party plans to continue flagging discrepancies to the ECI, pushing for fingerprint scanning technology to be deployed at every booth. The pressure is mounting on the poll body to prove it can clean up the rolls before the next major election cycle.