Hello,
The Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer (UP CEO) called our latest investigation riddled with “falsehoods and inaccuracies”. But in a video rebuttal posted on his official X handle, he confirmed it.
In our investigation, we had found that the ECI’s software auto-generated 85,854 forms to delete voters in UP without giving a reason. Some forms carried just a single letter, such as “A”, “N”, “H” or “E”, entered as the reason for removing voters.
Stating proper reasons for deletion is mandatory under the law and even under the ECI’s SIR rules. UP CEO Navdeep Rinwa did not explain any of this.
Rinwa also confirmed our finding that more than 200 attempts had been made to delete Muslim voters en masse, but brushed it off as insignificant.
The ECI did not defend the UP CEO. Instead, it barred individuals from filing deletion forms in bulk.
Read our follow-up to the UP CEO’s response: UP CEO Admits ECI Auto-generated 85,000+ Voter Deletion Forms Without a Reason, Confirms Mass Deletion Attempts Against Muslims
You can also read our investigation that set it rolling: In UP SIR, ECI Software Auto-generated 85,854 Forms to Delete Voters Without a Reason
The Reporters’ Collective’s Electoral Roll Project has been live for over a year and has produced more than 30 investigative reports exposing unchecked authority in the SIR exercise.
We are not stopping yet. But our tiny team of reporters and editors relies on your support to keep this work going. Please support us.
Warm regards,
Ayushi Kar
Reporter
The Reporters’ Collective