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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Can't say when I'll return to India; legally barred from leaving UK: Mallya to Bombay HC
Mumbai (PTI): Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, facing multiple cases of fraud and money laundering, told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that he cannot say when he will return to India as he is legally barred from leaving the UK.
In a statement submitted through his counsel Amit Desai to the high court, Mallya said he did not have an active passport after it was revoked and hence, he cannot give a definite date of return to India.
The statement was submitted after a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad made it clear last week that it would not hear Mallya's plea against the order declaring a fugitive economic offender until he returns to India.
The court had then asked the former liquor to clarify whether or not he intended to return to India.
Mallya, based in the United Kingdom since 2016, has filed two petitions in the HC -- one challenging an order declaring him a fugitive economic offender and the other questioning the constitutional validity of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.
The 70-year-old liquor baron is accused of defaulting on multiple loan repayments of several thousand crores and facing money laundering charges.
The businessman, in his statement to HC, said he cannot give a definite date for his return as he does not have his Indian passport, which was revoked by the government in 2016, and also because there are orders of courts in England and Wales that prohibit him from leaving the country.
"Mallya is not permitted to leave or attempt to leave England and Wales or apply for or be in possession of any international travel document. In any event, the petitioner is unable to precisely state when he will return to India," Desai read out the statement in the court.
The senior counsel reiterated that Mallya's presence was not required in the country for the court to hear his pleas against the fugitive tag and the provisions of the Act.
"If he (Mallya) were to appear in India, then all these proceedings would be rendered irrelevant as the statute says that once the offender appears in the concerned court of law, then all these orders would be set aside," Desai told the court.
The bench directed the Union government to file its reply to Mallya's statement and posted the matter for further hearing next month.
Mallya was declared a Fugitive Economic Offender in January 2019 by a special court hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The businessman left India in March 2016.
