UP poll body tells Akhilesh it conducts only panchayati raj, urban local bodies elections

Lucknow, Sep 5 (PTI) The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Uttar Pradesh on Friday issued a clarification on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for voter list purification and responded to allegations made by Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav regarding 18,000 affidavits.

In a detailed post on its official X handle on Friday, the UP CEO's office addressed a recent news report about the use of AI to find and correct errors in voter lists.

The post clarified that this initiative was undertaken by the State Election Commission, Uttar Pradesh, which is responsible for preparing voter lists for and conducting elections for panchayat raj institutions and urban local bodies.

The CEO's office pointed out that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is responsible for the voter lists and the conduct of Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad elections.

The post read: "The news about using AI to purify voter lists is not related to the Election Commission of India. There is often a lack of clarity among the general public and media, and even many government officials and employees, about the difference between the two commissions. This opportunity is being used to highlight this difference." The CEO also responded to Yadav's tweet from September 1, where the SP chief questioned why only 14 out of the 18,000 affidavits submitted by his party had been addressed.

Yadav's post read, "When the 'jugaad' commission can catch its scam of 1.25 crore with AI, then why not the remaining 17,986 affidavits after responding to only 14 of the 18,000 affidavits we submitted?" In its official response, the CEO stated that the matter of the 18,000 affidavits is related to the ECI and the UP CEO.

The CEO's office said that upon inquiry, district election officers in the 33 districts and the 74 Vidhan Sabha constituencies mentioned have reported that "not a single affidavit in original form has been received by the District Election Officers and Electoral Registration Officers regarding the complaint of a large number of voters' names being wrongly deleted before the 2022 assembly elections." The statement further added: "No original affidavits related to this complaint have been received at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Uttar Pradesh, as of September 4, 2025. As soon as the original affidavits related to this complaint are received, a prompt investigation will be completed, and effective action will be taken, and the public will be informed." PTI CDN KSS KSS