UP Chief Electoral Officer denies mass voter deletion allegations, says 85,854 Form 7 entries followed due process

Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa has rejected allegations by The Reporters' Collective that the Election Commission of India used ERONET software to arbitrarily delete nearly 86,000 voters from the state's electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision exercise. Rinwa termed the investigative report's findings misleading and factually incorrect, asserting that the electoral roll revision followed statutory provisions and established procedures.

The Reporters' Collective had alleged that the ERONET software automatically generated 85,854 Form 7 applications with digital signatures from election officials, without specifying deletion grounds. The report also questioned the timing of these applications, raised concerns about bulk objections, and suggested possible targeting of minority voters.

Rinwa clarified that the 85,854 Form 7 entries were not fresh objections to remove voters, but rather administrative implementation of decisions made by Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers after completing prescribed verification processes and formal orders. The CEO maintained that the report misrepresented routine administrative actions as arbitrary disenfranchisement.