The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has asked the Samajwadi Party (SP) to submit original copies of the 18,000 affidavits it claimed to have provided to the Election Commission. In a statement posted on X, the CEO clarified that only 3,919 scanned copies had been received via email so far, contrary to the SP’s claim of submitting 18,000.

The CEO suggested that the discrepancy could be due to an error by the SP office in attaching only a limited number of scanned affidavits while emailing the complaint. He urged the party to submit the complete set of original documents either at the CEO’s office, the concerned district election offices, or the assembly constituency’s electoral registration offices. Additionally, he directed that proper receipts be issued for every affidavit submitted to maintain transparency.

Earlier, the CEO stated that no original affidavits had reached his office and confirmed that the scanned affidavits received covered 3,919 individuals from 33 districts across 74 assembly constituencies. Investigations into five constituencies have already revealed irregularities, including affidavits issued in the names of people who had died years before 2022. In other cases, individuals shown scanned copies denied ever submitting such documents. The CEO warned that submitting false evidence is a punishable offence under law.

Responding to the directive, the Samajwadi Party alleged on X that the Election Commission had become an extension of the BJP, accusing it of siding with the ruling party and ignoring genuine voter complaints.