The Election Commission has ordered an inquiry into discrepancies in the electoral rolls for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections after unusual entries, including “Ram ne Yadav ko maara” and “B.Com”, listed as a voter’s father’s name, came to light ahead of polling.
The errors were detected in the electoral rolls for 11 graduate and teachers’ constituencies, including the Allahabad-Jhansi graduates’ constituency, where polling is being held on Friday.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa acknowledged the discrepancies on Thursday, stating that 158 entries among the 14.81 lakh names listed across the 11 constituencies contained unusual details.
According to reports, several errors were linked to the software used for the first time in the state to prepare electoral rolls digitally. The system was introduced to replace the earlier process of manually compiling voter lists at the district level.
The software, developed by the election office’s information technology team in around four months, was designed to convert names entered in English into Hindi. However, in some cases, it translated words instead of transliterating them, leading to incorrect entries.
Rinwa cited the example of “Ramhit Yadav” being mistakenly entered as “Ram hit Yadav”. The software could then interpret the phrase in Hindi as “Ram ne Yadav ko maara”, meaning “Ram hit Yadav”.
He said such errors could have been corrected using the software’s editing facility, but some remained in the final electoral rolls. However, the entry of “B.Com” as a voter’s father’s name appeared to be a case of human error or negligence, he added.
The discrepancies came to light after political parties raised complaints and lists of questionable entries circulated on social media. Following the complaints, Rinwa ordered an inquiry, which was conducted by Jhansi Divisional Commissioner Bimal Kumar Dubey and confirmed errors in the electoral rolls.
The Chief Electoral Officer has directed district authorities to ensure that no eligible voter is denied the right to vote due to clerical or printing errors. Presiding officers have been instructed to verify the necessary documents and allow eligible voters to cast their ballots. District magistrates will be held responsible if any eligible voter is turned away for such reasons.
Polling for five graduate and six teachers’ constituencies is being conducted from 8 am to 4 pm on Friday. More than 14.81 lakh voters are eligible to vote at 2,697 polling stations spread across 72 districts, with 152 candidates contesting the elections.
The digitisation initiative followed the Election Commission’s September 5, 2016, instructions to provide online registration facilities for eligible applicants. The portal, launched on October 1, 2025, enabled applicants to submit registration forms from home.