The Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer’s office has apologised for the “tone and tenor” of its social media response to the “Ram hit Yadav” voter-slip controversy.
Accepting that its comments were inappropriate for an official account, UP CEO took to X and wrote: “The tone and tenor and the acerbic nature of the comments in the quoted post of this handle is not in line with the nature of communication expected from this official handle.”
“The genuine outrage generated by the comments in the post has been well noted. We offer our sincere apologies to the persons shocked and offended by it. Our communication henceforth will be decorous and formal,” it added.
The apology followed an exchange with AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who had questioned chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over an erroneous voter-slip entry in which “Ramhit Yadav” became “Ram ne Yadav ko Maara”.
“Gyanesh Kumar ji, why did Ram hit only a Yadav? Why did Ram not hit any Singh, Pathak, Asthana, Sharma, Rai or Bisht? Is your computer casteist? Are you running the agenda of any political party?” Singh had asked in a post written in Hindi on X.
Responding on Monday, the chief electoral officer’s account cited another incorrect entry, “Ram ne Sharma ko Maara”, and said computers and software were not casteist.
“We accept that an error was made, but fortunately, even while making the error, no caste discrimination took place. Thank God that Ram did not hit a minority. Otherwise, besides being accused of casteism, we would have also faced allegations of communalism,” the earlier post said.
The office had also shared an image of a voter slip.
The slip listed the voter's name as Ravi Sharma, while his father's name appeared as "Ram ne Sharma ko Maara".
The controversy began late last week when the CEO’s office acknowledged unusual voter or relative names in 158 entries out of more than 14.81 lakh. The office said online registration for Uttar Pradesh’s Legislative Council electoral rolls had been introduced for the first time.
Chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa had previously attributed some incorrect entries to the software used to prepare electoral rolls.
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Rinwa said the software was designed to transliterate names entered in English into Hindi.
In some cases, however, it translated the words instead. A name entered as “Ram Hit Yadav”, for example, could become “Ram ne Yadav ko Maara” - “Ram hit Yadav”.
Rinwa had said the editing feature allowed such mistakes to be corrected, but some remained in the final list. A separate entry showing “B.Com” in place of a father’s name appeared to be a case of human error or negligence, he had said.