Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Friday lodged complaints with the Election Commission alleging polling irregularities in several districts of Uttar Pradesh amid voting for 11 seats in five Graduate and six Teacher constituencies of the state Legislative Council. The party complained of alleged deletion of voters' names from electoral rolls, failure to apply indelible ink, purported intimidation of voters and violations of the Model Code of Conduct near polling stations, IANS reported. SP leaders also reported alleged bogus voting and attempts to mislead voters at certain locations; the report noted these allegations have not been independently verified.

Source: IANS via HiIndia

In the biennial Legislative Council elections, a total of 1,481,310 voters are eligible to vote, with 2,697 polling stations set up across the state and 152 candidates in the fray. Polling was scheduled to continue until 4 p.m. on Friday.

Source: IANS via HiIndia

On X, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party alleged that at Booth No. 186 in Lucknow's Uttar Assembly constituency, around 50 out of approximately 150 voters who had registered their names found their voter status marked 'deleted', preventing them from casting votes, and it urged the Election Commission to investigate immediately. The party also alleged that voters at Booth No. 260 in Jhansi's Sadar Assembly constituency were not marked with indelible ink after voting, which it said could create the possibility of double voting. At Booth No. 230 in the Madhogarh block of Jalaun, the SP alleged that some government employees forced Muslim voters to sign documents and cast votes against their wishes, and in Auraiya's Bidhuna constituency it accused BJP leaders of creating disturbances, IANS reported.

Source: IANS via HiIndia

ReportWire, summarising the SP's complaints, added an allegation from Sahibabad in Ghaziabad: the party said BJP agents were sitting within 200 metres of booths 234 to 237 at Kailashvati Inter College in Arthla with flags, and that teachers were being transported in private school buses; the SP said its complaint to the ADM had not led to any action. This detail, like the others, is the party's allegation and has not been independently confirmed.

Source: ReportWire

Separately, SP president Akhilesh Yadav alleged that BJP workers and their associates engaged in booth-looting at an MLC polling centre in Fatehpur and accused the Election Commission of inaction, NationPress reported. Yadav said he would not appeal to the Commission — an appeal, he said, is made only to someone from whom one has hope — and threatened to file FIRs against officials found to have manipulated the election process, citing video evidence collected by his party. As of NationPress's publication, the Election Commission had not issued a public response to the Fatehpur allegations.

Source: NationPress

Counting and results for the Council elections are awaited. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if the Election Commission or the BJP responds to the SP's complaints.