Why the removal of Muslim and OBC election officials ahead of bye-polls in UP has raised eyebrows

For close to two decades, Shakeel Ahmed, a nagar panchayat employee in Uttar Pradesh, has been pressed into service during elections.

The 51-year-old was tasked with adding and removing voters from the electoral roll as a booth-level officer in Katehari Assembly constituency in Ambedkar Nagar district.

Booth-level officers, who are usually local-level government employees, like anganwadi workers, panchayat secretaries or postmen, act as part-time officials of the Election Commission of India. Apart from maintaining voter lists, they also distribute voter information slips before polling day, which confirm the voter’s registration and includes information on where and when to cast their vote.

But in September, Ahmed was told by the sub-divisional magistrate that his services as a BLO at the polling centre in Iltifatganj Bazar were not required. “After the [Lok Sabha] elections, we were told that our work in the nagar panchayat was suffering because of the BLO duty,” said Ahmed. “But none of the Hindu BLOs in the neighbouring villages were removed.”

In Uttar Pradesh, the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year were marred by allegations that voters from Muslim, Yadav and other communities – seen as supporters of the Samajwadi Party, the main opposition party in the state – were denied their vote in several...

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