The Election Commission has ordered a statewide review of voter-roll changes made by computer assistants across all 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh after serious irregularities were discovered in Pilibhit Sadar.
Every name added, deleted or amended through Forms 6, 7 and 8 after the Special Intensive Revision ended on April 10 will now come under scrutiny.
The poll panel has also stopped computer assistants from directly entering voter applications.
Physical forms submitted by electors must now be digitised by booth-level officers through the official BLO App.
FCRF’s Chief AI Officer Certification Returns on November 14 to Prepare Future AI Leaders
Pilibhit Probe Found 10,470 Irregular Entries
The statewide action follows an investigation into the electoral roll of Pilibhit Sadar.
The controversy began after complaints that voter names had changed even though their Elector Photo Identity Card, or EPIC, numbers remained the same.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer later confirmed that serious discrepancies had been found.
According to the investigation, a computer assistant at the voter registration centre entered 13,779 Form 8 applications between May 31 and August 29.
Form 8 is used when a voter seeks correction of details or changes relating to residence.
Officials said no corresponding forms or records could be found in the office for those entries.
Of the 13,779 applications, 10,470 were approved while 3,309 were rejected.
The poll authorities therefore treated the 10,470 approved entries as irregular.
Corrections to those records are now under way.
Computer Assistants Barred From Entering Voter Forms
The Election Commission has now tightened how electoral-roll applications are handled across Uttar Pradesh.
Computer assistants will no longer be allowed to feed Forms 6, 7 or 8 into the electoral system.
Form 6 is generally used for enrolling a new voter.
Form 7 can be used to seek deletion of an entry.
Form 8 covers corrections and certain changes to existing voter details.
Physical applications must instead be digitised directly by booth-level officers.
This creates an additional accountability layer because BLOs are the election officials responsible for verification at polling-station level.
The Chief Electoral Officer has also instructed officials not to share ERONET login credentials with unauthorised persons.
Electoral registration officers have been told to review pending applications every day and ensure that supporting documents are preserved.
Review Will Cover All 403 Assembly Constituencies
The reverification is not limited to Pilibhit.
All post-SIR Forms 6, 7 and 8 entered by computer assistants across Uttar Pradesh will now be examined.
The exact number of records involved has not been officially disclosed.
Reports suggest the number could run into several lakh entries because the review covers changes made after April 10 across the entire state.
Divisional commissioners have been designated as electoral-roll observers.
District election officers will supervise officials responsible for preparing and updating rolls.
The Election Commission has warned that action could be taken against electoral registration officers, assistant electoral registration officers and computer staff where irregularities are found.
Officials have also been directed to remove duplicate entries before the next draft roll is published.
FIR Filed Over Pilibhit Irregularities
The Pilibhit investigation has already resulted in disciplinary and criminal action.
An FIR was registered against two sub-divisional magistrates and a computer operator following the inquiry.
The computer operator was dismissed from service.
The two officers were removed from their posts and departmental proceedings were initiated.
The Chief Electoral Officer also ordered scrutiny of all Form 6 and Form 7 applications processed by the same operator after the SIR.
That review is intended to establish whether the irregularities extended beyond corrections under Form 8 to additions or deletions of voters.
The case became politically sensitive because Pilibhit Sadar was won in the 2022 Assembly election by a margin smaller than the number of disputed voter entries later identified.
However, the existence of irregular voter records does not by itself establish that an election result was affected.
Any such conclusion would require separate evidence.
Uttar Pradesh Rolls Fell by More Than Two Crore Names
The issue comes after a major revision of Uttar Pradesh’s electoral rolls.
The state had around 15.44 crore voters before the SIR.
The final roll published on April 10 contained about 13.39 crore names, a net reduction of roughly 2.04 crore.
The Election Commission has previously directed officials to revisit cases where eligible voters may have been wrongly deleted and to facilitate their re-enrolment through the prescribed process.
The latest order adds another layer of scrutiny by examining changes made after the revision itself.
That makes the integrity of the digital workflow particularly important.
Election officials increasingly rely on software, electronic forms and centralised databases to maintain voter lists.
But decisions to add, delete or alter voter records still require documented verification and official accountability.
What this means for you:
Voters in Uttar Pradesh should check their current electoral-roll entry well before the next election. If your name, address or other details have changed unexpectedly, use the Election Commission’s official portal or contact your booth-level officer rather than relying on third-party agents.
Follow for daily updates on cybercrime, corporate fraud, DFIR, hacking, investigations, and digital forensics
