Akhilesh flags 'irregularities' in SIR, accuses EC of bias
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday alleged irregularities in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh and accused the Election Commission (EC) of failing to ensure impartiality.
"This is a very important issue. Related reports are continuously coming to light," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, referring to the SIR exercise.
Addressing a press conference here, Yadav recalled that when the EC announced the revision on November 4, 2025, it had promised to ensure that "no deficiency would remain in the voters' list" and said the process would make the electoral rolls "pure and inclusive".
"The EC had said with the help of mapping and technology, the voters' list would be made absolutely accurate and no voter would be left out," the SP president said, adding, "What we see on the ground are several irregularities."
Citing discrepancies found in the Kannauj Sadar Assembly constituency, which is part of his Lok Sabha seat, Yadav said, "If this is the situation in one constituency, one can imagine what is happening across the state."
He accused officials of working in collusion with the government and claimed that the EC, "which is a constitutional body, is no longer acting impartially".
During the recent bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, "votes were looted at the booths", Yadav alleged.
While CCTV footage does exist, the EC has decided that it will not be given to any political party, he claimed.
Yadav further alleged that the SIR exercise is being used as a tool to weaken the opposition.
"Through this revision, several conspiracies and manipulations are being carried out to weaken the opposition and the BJP government is preparing for it," he said.
The repeated extensions of the SIR timeline reflect a lack of preparedness, Yadav added.
"The time was extended for the first time, then it was extended again -- this shows that they were not prepared," he said, questioning which technology and technical experts are being used for the exercise.
Earlier in the day, Yadav had alleged that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has no intention of conducting a caste census and accused it of deceiving the backward, Dalit and minority (PDA) communities.
In a post on X, he said the census notification does not even have a column for caste. "What will they count? Caste census is also a BJP jumla," the SP chief said, alleging that the ruling party's "clear formula" is that without counting, no demographic basis will emerge for proportional reservation and rights.
He claimed that not conducting a caste census is a "BJP conspiracy" against the PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) sections of the society.
Yadav said those who had put their trust in the BJP are now feeling not only cheated but "deeply insulted". He also took a swipe at BJP leaders and workers who had earlier claimed that the party would get a caste census conducted.
"Those BJP workers and leaders are now left with no face to show. They are being forced to remove BJP scarves from their necks and take down BJP flags from their homes, shops and vehicles," he claimed.
The former chief minister said the PDA community would now have to fight its battle for dignity, reservation and rights on its own.
He further alleged that whenever opposition intensifies, the BJP would again cite a "typing mistake" as an excuse. "The BJP has now been exposed so badly that everyone knows what it will do after its wrong intentions are revealed," he said.
Calling it "not BJP cleverness but BJP shamelessness", Yadav said the party's conduct amounts to a betrayal.
"The meaning of 'promise-breaking' BJP should now be written as 'deception' in dictionaries," he added.
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ICC replaces Bangladesh with Scotland in T20 World Cup
New Delhi (PTI): The ICC on Saturday confirmed that Scotland has replaced Bangladesh in the upcoming T20 World Cup, saying the "difficult decision" was taken since it was not feasible to meet BCB's request to shift their matches to Sri Lanka so close to the tournament.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to let its team travel to India citing security concerns in the wake of Mustafizur Rahman's ouster from the IPL.
ICC maintained that there was no verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials or supporters in India and it was not appropriate to amend the published event schedule.
Scotland's entry into the tournament, starting February 7, ended the suspense over the fate of Bangladesh in the event after BCB stayed adamant in its demand and even suggested that its group be swapped with Ireland's.
At the ICC Board meeting on Wednesday, Bangladesh lost it proposal to shift matches by an overwhelming 14-2 margin with only Pakistan supporting its cause.
"Bangladesh will no longer compete in the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to participate in the tournament per the published match schedule," ICC said in a statement.
"The decision follows an extensive process undertaken by the ICC to address concerns raised by the BCB regarding the hosting of its scheduled matches in India."
It has been learnt that top ICC officials including chairman Jay Shah were in Dubai on Friday and late evening an e-mail was sent to BCB chairman Aminul Islam Bulbul informing him about global body's decision.
"The ICC’s assessments concluded that there was no credible or verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials or supporters in India.
"In light of these findings, and after careful consideration of the broader implications, the ICC determined that it was not appropriate to amend the published event schedule," the statement added.
The ICC said it had given BCB a 24-hour time-frame to confirm whether its team would participate in India as scheduled.
"As no confirmation was received within the deadline, the ICC proceeded in line with its established governance and qualification processes to identify a replacement team."
"Scotland are the next-highest ranked T20I team that had originally missed T20 World Cup qualification. They are currently ranked 14th, which in fact is ahead of competing teams Namibia, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal, USA, Canada, Oman and Italy.
"Scotland has been called up to take Bangladesh’s place in Group C, joining England, Italy, Nepal and the West Indies."
Scotland will play their group games against West Indies (February 7), Italy (February 9) and England (February 14) in Kolkata followed by a game against Nepal in Mumbai on February 17.
Bangladesh Sports Ministry advisor Asif Nazrul had advised against national team travelling to India, citing security issues despite being given repeated assurances by the ICC.
The BCB, in a desperate measure, had also approached the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) of the ICC, unaware about the terms of reference of the sub-committee which is not allowed to hear an appeal against a decision made by its own Board of Directors.
While the mandatory independent security assessment threat for Bangladesh was "low to moderate", same for all teams, anti-India hardliner Nazrul issued a diktat as representative of the interim government that the team cannot be allowed to travel to India in these circumstances.
In fact, the meeting between Nazrul and national team players turned out to be a one-way communication with Nazrul doing all the talking and telling the star cricketers that they won't be allowed to participate in the tournament.
Financial implication for BCB
The implications of this unceremonious ouster will also badly hit BCB's coffers. The board will lose USD 500,000 participation fee that each nation gets. But the bigger potential loss will be ICC's annual revenue.
The BCB annually receives close to USD 27 million (330 crore BDT) as a share of its revenue from the ICC and that itself constitutes around 60 percent of its annual budget.
Add to it, the loss of sponsorship money for not playing the tournament. Last but not least, with India now not travelling to that part of the world for a bilateral series means BCB will lose money which would have been equal to playing 10 bilateral series against other nations.
The only legal option that exists with BCB is to move to Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) in Lausanne but the tournament will still go on.
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