SEC probing voter list discrepancies in Lucknow

Lucknow, Nov 27 :   The State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday ordered a probe into the alleged irregularities in the voter list for the Sunday municipal body polls and asked Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Anil Garg to investigate, officials said.

State Election Commissioner S.K. Agarwal has asked Garg to submit the report by December 15.

There have been many complaints of missing names in the voters list and even many prominent political personalities like former Union Minister Kalraj Mishra and three-time Lucknow Mayor Dauji Gupta were deprived from voting because their names did not figure in the list.

Lucknow, along with 24 other urban municipal bodies, went to the polls on Sunday.

SEC officials said that prima facie it appears that the district administration did not discharge its duties well enough and hence the probe. "No one found guilty will be spared," Agarwal said.

Former Bharatiya Janata Party chief of the Uttar Pradesh unit, Laxmikant Bajpayi, and other politicians have openly aired their disenchantment with the voter list.

Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also tweeted on how the missing names of even senior BJP leaders spoke volumes of the chaos in the urban body polls.

With regard to similar complaints received from other places too, poll panel officials said they would also be reviewed and if needed orders for a probe issued.

Two phases of polling for the urban bodies have already taken place on November 22 and 26 and the third and final phase will be held on Wednesday, campaigning for which ended on Monday evening.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself is spearheading the BJP's campaign in what is being seen as a test of his government's functioning in the last seven months.